


Bad Guys can be Good Guys

by Kono_Rohan_Da



Series: Captain Squad [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, But they're more like anti-heroes tbh, CAPTAIN SQUAD, Corruption, Drama, Fake Family Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Friendship, Getting Together, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Summaries, Major Character Injury, Minor Injuries, Misunderstandings, POV Alternating, Platonic Cuddling, Protective Akaashi Keiji, Protective Team, Secret Identity, Secrets, Self-Indulgent, Slow Burn, Superheroes, Supervillain Ally: Komori Motoya, Supervillains, Supervillains: Daichi & Oikawa & Kuroo & Ushijima & Akaashi & Sakusa, Suspicious Teams, Team as Family, almost, platonic sleeping together, precious boys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 49,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25023598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kono_Rohan_Da/pseuds/Kono_Rohan_Da
Summary: Playing volleyball is nice. High school is nice. Hiding your identity as a wanted member of a group of the most powerful supervillains in Japan isn't nearly as nice.OrAkaashi, Daichi, Kuroo, Oikawa, and Ushijima, along with their ally and safe-house owner, Sakusa, make up the mysterious and elusive supervillain group called the Horsemen who are wanted by the National Heroes Association. During the day, they hide the fact that they have superpowers, are villains, and are leading a double-life from their friends/teams. Friends who they know also happen to be superheroes working for the Association. It's hard, leading a double-life, but it'll be worth it to protect the nation and their hero teammates from the corruption that is spreading exponentially from the top of the Association.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji & Kuroo Tetsurou, Akaashi Keiji & Kuroo Tetsurou & Oikawa Tooru & Sawamura Daichi & Ushijima Wakatoshi, Akaashi Keiji & Oikawa Tooru, Akaashi Keiji & Sakusa Kiyoomi, Akaashi Keiji & Sawamura Daichi, Akaashi Keiji & Ushijima Wakatoshi, Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Azumane Asahi & Sawamura Daichi & Shimizu Kiyoko & Sugawara Koushi, Bokuto Koutarou & Kuroo Tetsurou, Iwaizumi Hajime & Oikawa Tooru, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Komori Motoya & Sakusa Kiyoomi, Komori Motoya & Sawamura Daichi, Kozume Kenma & Kuroo Tetsurou, Kuroo Tetsurou & Oikawa Tooru, Kuroo Tetsurou & Sakusa Kiyoomi, Kuroo Tetsurou & Sawamura Daichi, Kuroo Tetsurou & Ushijima Wakatoshi, Miya Atsumu & Sakusa Kiyoomi, Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi, Oikawa Tooru & Sakusa Kiyoomi, Oikawa Tooru & Sawamura Daichi, Sakusa Kiyoomi & Sawamura Daichi, Sakusa Kiyoomi & Ushijima Wakatoshi, Sawamura Daichi & Sugawara Koushi, Sawamura Daichi & Ushijima Wakatoshi
Series: Captain Squad [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918720
Comments: 150
Kudos: 301





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is mostly to set a background. The next chapter will probably be a short summary of what happens this year and the next until we're at the start of the canon timeline, so when Akaashi is a 2nd year and Bokuto is a 3rd year and Fukurodani. 
> 
> POV Akaashi for this chapter

Superheroes and villains existed in Japan for the last two decades. For some reason, in the entire world, the most powerful heroes existed in Japan. It wasn’t rare, per say, to have a power. It was rare to have a power that was actually significant. For example, there were people who had simple powers. There were florists who could keep petals from wilting for a few more days. There were meteorologists who could tell the severity of any natural events or the force of an earthquake before it could strike. There were people who could temporarily make tin foil have the strength of steel. 

  


But then there were the people with the things out of weekly manga issues. In the entire world, approximately twenty-five percent of all people had a power, no matter how small. In some areas they were more condensed, in others they would perhaps be only one person with a power. It was a biological phenomenon, genetics not relative to whether one would have a power or not. 

  


Out of that twenty-five percent, a mere two percent of that twenty-five percent of the world’s population had significant powers. So 2% of 25%. And, for some reason, almost  _ ten percent  _ of that two percent lived in Japan. That two percent of the twenty-five. Those people are the ones who generally become well known. For anyone of the twenty-five percent, their power was merely called a quirk, a small but unique part of their life. But those two-percent,  _ they  _ had what you would really call a power. Of course, anyone with a power would cause a lot of commotion. They generally kept quiet about it, either acting as if they either had a quirk or didn’t have any at all. They were the powerhouses, the  _ real  _ stars from the mangas. 

  


In the beginning, sometime in the early nineteen hundreds in the start of World War I, quirks first started appearing. It wasn’t until at least the 80s that the first superpowers first started appearing. It caused cries around the world. They were powerful. They were unstable, some even called. Unpredictable. And that’s when Japan, the nation with five-percent of all the people with powers and twenty-three percent of all people with quirks, took the initiative. 

  


Japan National Heroes Association. 

  


The National Heroes Association is a government foundation, partially founded by taxes but the majority of it come from private donators from around the world. The National Heroes Association hired almost anyone with powers and some people with clever uses of their quirks. It depends on both the individual and their quirk or power. People with quirks usually worked with the police, helping them out or facing minor villains. Superheroes on the other hand were the people with powers, the two-percent. They usual wore those costumes either because of attention or because they wanted to keep their hero life separate from their personal life, since the minimum age for becoming a member of the National Heroes Association was a questionable fifteen, when most people would be in their first year of high school. 

  


But it didn’t matter. Because where there are Superheroes, there are also  _ Supervillains _ . 

  


Supervillains weren’t just villains, the people with quirks who robbed jewelry stores and occasionally evaded the officials for some time. No, Supervillains had  _ powers _ . They were the ones who could fly, who could control metal. They could teleport from place to place, they could create steel chains from thin air and control them like a puppet on strings. They were dangerous and although they didn’t pose as much of a danger as say, a tsunami, they did cause some property damage and a lost of monetary loss. They fought heroes and never hesitated to injure or kill them. They would loot stores and before turning the establishment to rubber. They were the scum of the earth who became rich because of their deeds. 

  


But, for one Akaashi Keiji, most of this was not true. 

  


Yes, all the statistics are true. A portion of the world having quirks, a portion of that have actual formidable powers. Some of them decided to do good and some decided to do bad. But not all who did good were pure. There were heroes who didn’t wear masks and would get praise would torturing a villain in front of a ground who would be livestreaming the event. There were supervillains who only targeted a single villain because of revenge. There would be heroes who would slap down a common man for standing in their way when nobody would be looking. 

  


And they ignored it. Because that only happened so rarely. So rarely that nobody would believe it, not even the conspiracy blogs. And that was saying a  _ lot _ . 

  


Akaashi is a third year at Mori middle school, only a month away from graduating. He moved to the prefecture in the beginning of his second year, joining the boys volleyball team as a setter to continue the career he had before at his old school. He enjoyed volleyball. And it was also in volleyball where he met his first true friend: third-year Bokuto Koutaro. 

  


The two became quick friends, and when Bokuto graduated and got accepted to Fukurodani, Akaashi silently promised himself that he would follow the gold-eyed boy there. Because Bokuto trusted him and Akaashi felt bad that he trusted Bokuto, but not as much as he did. 

  


Because one day in the silence of Bokuto’s room in the summer, when Akaashi and he were hanging out, getting ready for his first year at one place and his last year at another, Bokuto revealed his secret. 

  


* * *

_  
_

_ “Akaashi” He had said. His hair was out of it’s usual style since he just took a shower and the two were about half an hour from going to bed, the guest futon laid out on the floor for Bokuto since the elder insisted that Akaashi take his bed. “I. . .want to tell you something. I’ve only told my mom and dad and my sis-” _

  


_ “So your family, Bokuto-san?” Akaashi had said. Bokuto nods, a stray lock of his two-toned hair falling between his eyes. With a puff of breath, Bokuto had sent the lock to the top of his head.  _

  


_ “Yeah! My family!” Bokuto eagerly agreed. Then he became  _ shy _. Bokuto Koutarou,  _ shy _. He absently rubbed his shoulder. “I didn’t want anyone to ju-” _

  


_ “I would absolutely judge if you told me that you were quitting volleyball. Besides that, nothing would really be enough to gather anything negative.” Bokuto’s eyes had widened and Akaashi loved how much trust was held in there. How there was more light in those eyes when they looked at Akaashi. And Bokuto truly was a light in his life. He would of been so miserable, just like how he had been in his old school, if he hadn’t had someone like Bokuto.  _

  


_ Bokuto laughs. “I love that ‘bout you, Kaashi. You know how to make me laugh.” Then his laugh abruptly cuts off. “But no! I’d never quit volleyball!” His gaze turns serious. “This, uh. . .I have a power.” _

  


_ “A quirk?” Akaashi raised an eyebrow. Bokuto tips his head down, his hair hanging over his eyes.  _

  


_ “No” he whispers. “I mean, it isn’t just my family I told. You know that guy I met in that practice match in the beginning of the year? Kuroo?” Akaashi nodded. “Well, I showed him first and he was fine with it because his friend also has a power and he swore not to tell and he said you’d be fine with it as well but I’m not really sure now because well you’re you an-” _

  


_ “So a power. Not a quirk.” In his head, Akaashi had remembered when he was a kid, before he had control of his power. His parents would lock him in a windowless, objectless room, occasionally sending him food and water. “I am fine with that. I knew a boy” myself “back in elementary school who had a power.” Bokuto’s eyes filled with relief.  _

  


_ “Thank you” he managed with a softer voice.  _

  


_ “So what is it?” Akaashi asked. Bokuto flinches, blinking owlishly at Akaashi.  _

  


_ “What?” Akaashi stifled a laugh, his mouth turning into a small smile which he hopes is comforting.  _

  


_ “You’re power.”  _

  


_ “Oh! Yeah! Give me your hand.” Akaashi, without hesitation, held one of his hands out. They were slightly calloused from volleyball but besides that, they were pale and surprisingly smooth and soft. Then bokuto put his on top of Akaashi’s. Out of instinct, Akaashi brought his other hand forward so that he was cradling Bokuto’s much larger hand.  _

  


_ “Now watch” Bokuto whispered, leaning forward just a bit. The tips of Bokuto’s fingers changed in the amount of time it took to leap and spike a ball down onto the other side of the net. They were claws, light grey in color and smoothly turning into skin. They’re slightly curved at the ends but even Akaashi can see that they’re razor sharp.  _

  


_ “Those are wonderful” Akaashi whispered, unable to keep himself from tracing a finger over the smooth side of one of the talons. And then he watches as just as quickly, they disappear. Bokuto looks happy with Akaashi’s reaction. He hops onto his feet.  _

  


_ “It’s not just those” Bokuto says. His voice is reduced to a whisper in the darkness, the silence amplifying his voice. He taps the bridge of his nose, drawing Akaashi’s attention to that area of his face where his eyes seen brighter than before, golden eyes drawing him in. “I can see in the dark  _ aaand”  _ This is where he hesitated. _

  


_ “It’s okay, Bokuto-san” Akaashi said. Bokuto nodded and turned around so that his back was to Akaashi, the white cloth shining in the moonlight. He drew his shirt up, lightly tossing it to the ground. Then they unfurl, spreading from their folded position against Bokuto’s back, wings.  _

  


_ “For how much everyone know I absolutely  _ love  _ owls, it’s probably because I’m basically part owl or something myself.” He turns around and Akaashi meets his eyes and smiles, not saying anything, because he couldn’t trust his voice.  _

  


_ Because standing there in the moonlight, with his shirtless, toned almost sixteen year old body with his two-toned hair falling messily and with a beautiful pair of large black and white feathered wings, Bokuto looks nothing short of beautiful.  _

_  
_

* * *

* * *

**  
**

**Tokyo News Archives - Section: Powers - Subsection: Emergence**

_  
_

_ This morning, Hashimoto daycare was the victim to one of the most dangerous things that could happen: power emergence. Unlike quirks, which are always developed between the ages five to ten, powers tend to emerge at a younger age. At Hashimoto daycare center, an unnamed child (the daycare guidelines list that maximum ages of acceptance is the age of six) had their powers emerge. These powers are rank one and were uncontrolled. The child caused an earthquake to suddenly occur, followed by rain inside of the building, then a lightning strike which injured two people. One child was killed after being crushed by a bookshelf during the earthquake. The power emergee’s mother picked them up before authorities could arrive and detain the child. Please call the Heroes Association if you see a boy from the age two to six with black hair and green eyes.  _

* * *

* * *

  


Observing superheroes wasn’t a hobby that Akaashi wanted. He wasn’t even particularly fond of superheroes. The only one he  _ is  _ fond of is Bokuto. He loves looking overheard in hopes of spotting him flying over the city, wings comically silent in comparison to his boisterous nature. The only warning you would have before he’d come to apprehend a villain would be a large shadow. And he wouldn’t try to harm them. Usually he’d dive down and knock them on the ground and sit on them until the officers came with proper detainment gear. 

  


Other heroes,  _ those  _ where the ones that he watched not out of interest but because of suspicion. And here he has his chance. 

  


The whole street had been evacuated. Akaashi had managed to avoid police officers who were clearing people from the are so that heroes could come and work by using his powers to send him to the roof of a building before coming back down when the police disappeared. 

  


Now he just has to keep his eyes to what’s going on across the street, even though he should probably be studying for his exams. 

  


Five robbers. Two of them were normal, two had quirks, and one of them had a superpower. Four villains and a supervillain. The supervillain had pyrokinesis. Akaashi, by all means, could easily and secretly put him down before any heroes arrived. But that’s not the point.

  


They came out with bags filled with jewels and money, all of them stuffed in paper grocery bags, doubled-up to hold the weight of the contents. 

  


Five seconds later, two superheroes arrived. Akaashi leans against the building behind him at this, adjusted the sunglasses he wears, the only identity protection he bothered with. Two superheroes, not just heroes. Both of them he recognizes from his research. The first one has mind manipulation, which explains how they got here, and the latter has the ability to turn their hands into bricks and their skin to stone. 

  


The fight was easy enough. The normals tried running away but the guy with the wind brought them back and threw them through the window. The two heroes were knocked on the head with enough force to cause a concussion, at least. Akaashi was sure, even from this distance, that they weren’t dead at least. And the supervillain, he was the hardest, but it only took the guy with rock skin. 

  


Now all five of them are knocked out, sirens ringing in the distance. The two superheroes chatter with each other and then they reach down and  _ take  _ one bag each. Akaashi tilts his head. He feels the tingle in his feelings, the urge to call upon his power. 

  


But someone beats him to him. Someone is the wrong word though, because he’s heard of these two. 

  


A few months ago, in November, these three first appeared. At first, Akaashi thought they were villains, randomly attacking heroes. And then they moved up to  _ superheroes _ , easily defeating the people the country and the rest of the world praised so highly. They were supervillains, but what was their goal? They didn’t just stick to superheroes, but they even sometimes attacked Association officials and donators. All three of them would be dressed in black, wearing ski masks that only left their eyes uncovered, and even those were covered with identical sunglasses. The only thing separating the three was a single bracelet around their covered left wrist: red, green, orange. 

  


The officials didn’t know what powers they had because they always managed to escape so quickly. Akaashi managed to spot them a few times and they never injured anyone  _ except  _ for the hero, and never too seriously. There was one particularly finny moment when the guy with the green bracelet got some blood on his gloved right hand and he started ewing and prancing around with his other hand gripping his wrist. And then the guy with the orange bracelet calmed the guy down by taking by exchanging gloves. And then the guy with the red bracelet, the tallest of the three, took both of their hands and led them to the side of the building and as soon as all three of them step foot into the shadows, they disappeared. 

  


Now, he’s sure, he’s going to see them another time, and he’s going to confront them. 

  


Only two of them step out of the shadows, the one with the red bracelet and the one with the orange. The one with the red bracelet looked at his feet, where one of the quirked villains was laying, and he whistled, long and low, before looking up at the considerably taller rock-covered hero. 

  


“Wow. Thieving from the thieves? That’s a new one.” Akaashi’s eyes widen. That voice. . .he knows that voice. Even with the mask muffling it. That voice joins him and Bokuto’s hang-out times at least every other week. The rock-covered hero swings at the supervillain, who simply ducks and appears on the other side of the man, letting out his signature ugly laugh. Akaashi stands properly, taking a step towards the two, putting his hands in his pockets. 

  


“Stop messing around” the guy with the orange bracelet says and Akaashi doesn’t recognize him. The guy with the red bracelet moves to punch the guy with wind manipulation only to appear behind him and raise a leg and kick him on the head, knocking him to the ground. The stone guy moves to punch the guy with the orange bracelet but he merely raises a hand and flicks a finger and the guy goes flying onto the street. 

  


_ Telekinesis _ Akaashi nearly says out loud. For how much you read of it in the books, the closest thing you have to it in real life is wind manipulation. But even that doesn’t have the same affects as telekinesis. For one, using wind to lift anything takes a lot of energy, even more depending on the structure. 

  


And to see it at this level. . .

  


“Someone’s here.” The guy with the orange bracelet says, snapping his head to the left. If he wasn’t wearing sunglasses, his eyes would have widened considerably. Akaashi doesn’t walk towards them. 

  


“Oh no” the red-bracelet guy says. “They saw you- and me- with our powers. We have to go.” He grabs his wrist and before he can drag them to the shadows, Akaashi tilts his head just a bit and lightning suddenly strikes down less than a meter away from the two in the direction they were going. 

  


“This whole street was evacuated already” Akaashi says. “And the sirens are growing louder, approximately forty seconds away. He crosses the street. “Kuroo-san, perhaps you could take us somewhere where you can fully explain what exactly is going on?” From this distance, Akaashi can kind of see his friend’s eyes. 

  


“ _ Akaashi _ !?” Kuroo gasps after a few moments of silence. “Wait a wait a moment. Bo sai-”

  


“I don’t have powers? That is correct” Akaashi says, taking off his glasses, folding them, and hanging them from the waistline of his pants. “Only my parents are aware. They wanted me to join the Heroes Association but I persuaded them not to. It is a disadvantage to have other’s know if you have powers. I assume you didn’t tell Bokuto-san about your powers?” Kuroo shakes his head with a sigh. 

  


“He thinks I have a quirk, seeing in the dark.”

  


“Kuroo, we have to go” the other guy says. “Akaashi, was it?” His voice is polite and warm, completely different than what Akaashi would of expected. The guy is actually a little shorter than him but it doesn’t look like he’s looking down at him. “You can come with us. After you answer one thing” the sirens are growing louder “What do you think of the Heroes Association?”

  


He doesn’t even say anything, he just rolls the words in his head and the guy nods. 

  


“You’re good.” Akaashi blinks and Kuroo snickers. 

  


“Saa’mura’s also a telepath” Kuroo says, patting Akaashi on the head before grabbing his wrist. Akaashi blinks at this new piece of information. “After a while you learn how to block him out or play around with him by thinking up weir things.”

  


“By that he means memes” Saa’mura grumbles. “And it’s just weird that he has almost a whole documentary visually memorized.” He holds his hand out and Kuroo grabs it. They step into the shadows and they’re suddenly inside what looks like one of those fancy meeting rooms that you always see corrupt business lords gathering at in the movies. There are two other people there, one of them dressed the same as Saa’mura and Kuroo except his mask is off. Akaashi vaguely recognizes him from from a few video matches he found online. The second guy is dressed in normal clothing and he looks mildly sleep deprived, wearing the red jacket of what Akaashi knows to be the Japanese national youth team.

  


“Woah, new blood!” The first guy says. He has soft looking brown hair and a hidden sharpness behind his matching eyes. “He also looks good.”

  


“He’s also the only one of us who’s not a first year” Kuroo muses, taking his mask and glasses off. His uncontrollable hair bounces up to it’s usual style. “Meet Akaashi Keiji, a guy who I’m now  _ positive  _ has been stalking us for, like, half a year.”

  


The telekinetic/telepath takes his mask and glasses off, revealing an honest looking face that still has some baby fat left on it but which Akaashi admits would probably look very handsome in about a year. He has short dark hair and large, warm brown eyes. 

  


“Well the, Keiji-kun. My name is Oikawa Tooru!” He holds his hand out and Akaashi shakes it. Everything feels a bit strange because he was literally kind of teleported from one place to another. “I go to Aoba Johsai high school.”

  


“Nice to meet you” Akaashi says. He notices the green bracelet on the guy’s wrist. 

  


“I’m Sawamura Daichi” the shorter guy says “Karasuno high school.”

  


“Ushijima Wakatoshi” the sleep deprived guy says from the table, looking too tired to get up. “Shiratorizawa.”

  


“Ushiwaka doesn’t join us that often as of yet” Sawamura explains. “He’s on the youth team so he has to travel a lot and we don’t always have the time to find out where he is so we can send Kuroo to bring him.”

  


“It’s ironic, really” Kuroo points out “All of us play volleyball and we have to act like we’re not bros. Me and him” he nods to Sawamura “Are supposed to be rivals. Same for those two, although Oikawa puts on a pretty good act. That’s expected.”

  


“Do all of you have quirks or powers?” 

  


“Yes!” Oikawa croons and suddenly there are  _ two of him _ . “We all have powers. Pretty powerful too. We’re the largest consistent group of supervillains in Japan!” The second him disappears like a mirage. 

  


“So what exactly is the goal of your. . .team?” Akaashi asks. “I mean no offense, but none of you seem very villain-like, except for Kuroo-san, perhaps.” Kuroo pouts. 

  


“It depends on what you think to be a supervillain” Sawamura explains. “I think we’re more like a group of rag-tag anti-heroes.”

  


“Supervillains sounds cooler though” Kuroo grins. “I can practice fake-robbing stores.” Sawamura makes the wise choice of ignoring him.

  


“Oikawa and I, we started this. We were going to go to sign up to become heroes right before the school year began. Nobody, not even our families, knew about our powers because of how high up there they are, especially mine. Along the way, I heard some of the thoughts officials had. He was apparently already a bit suspicious of the organization because of his uncle or someone. He didn’t know me and I didn’t know him so I told him. And we decided to do somethin.

  


“The organization has corruption in it. But it’s bad. Some heroes work as private mercenaries for their benefactors on the side. As you saw today, quite a few commit the very crimes they’re supposed to be preventing. Kuroo was in the same boat as Oikawa and we needed as much help as possible, so when he popped out of the shadows one day and told us he wanted in, we couldn’t say no. He helped us by sneaking into buildings and stealing files. His mother also happens to be the president of a corporate branch here in Tokyo. This is her building, actually, so he’s also our piggy-bank.”

  


“Hey!”

  


“We’ve learned that the Association has slowly been getting more and more power. The police is already almost entirely in their hands. A lot of the local councils have ties to the Association. And in a few years time, who knows what will happen to Japan and maybe the world.”

  


Corruption in the Heroes Association, an organization revered around the world. It sounded like something even conspiracy theorists would shoot down almost immediately. But here is a guy who can read minds and a friend who can, as far as he knows, see in the dark and teleport through shadows. Oikawa. . .it’s not cloning, but more like creating an illusion of himself? And there’s probably more than that. And he doesn’t even know what Ushijima does. 

  


“Bokuto-san’s is a Superhero” Akaashi gasps, realizing that his friend, his  _ best friend _ , is already in the clutches of the Association Akaashi had already been suspicious of. Kuroo solemnly nods. 

  


“He’s one of the good ones though. We’re doing this for him, so that the Association he serves is at least a lot less corrupt. My dad was a hero” Kuroo continues “And he didn’t stand for the black market level things the Association was dealing with, so they killed him. Akaashi, you’re smart. Just that one lightning bolt scared all rational thought out of me for a moment. You’re powerful. And you care for Bokuto. So will you join us?” 

  


Everyone’s eyes are on him. Even Ushijima, who looks like he’s trying not to pass out, his eyelids battling to stay open. 

  


“Yes” Akaashi says. “But I only have one other thing to say.”

  


“Go ahead” Kuroo nods. 

  


“Thank you. The four of you are supervillains, yet your uniform design is even worse than amateur heroes.”

  


Oikawa lets out a whoop of delight. “ _ Finally _ ! See, Testsu-chan? Daichi and I were  _ right  _ by saying that the uniform designs  _ suck _ .” Kuroo groans. 

  


“I agree with Oikawa and Akaashi” Ushijima points out. And then he falls asleep. 

  


“Fine” Kuroo grumbles. “Should I take everyone home now?”

  


“Take Ushijima first.”

  


“Sawamura, you’ll have to come with me. I can’t carry him, he’s too heavy.” Daichi sighs. 

  


“Fine.” He doesn’t even move his hands. Ushijima just floating. 

  


“Thanks!”

  


Once Kuroo has transported everyone, it’s only him and Akaashi left. 

  


“I’ll come to your school some time this week and give you contact information and stuff. We have meetings every Saturday and me, being the chauffeur, pick everyone up even though Sawamura’s technically the leader. Any questions?”

  


“Yes. How did Ushijima-san join?” Kuroo laughs. 

  


“That’s funny, actually.” He rubs the back of his neck. “When it was just the three of us, I went to where Oikawa texted me he was at, at he wasn’t alone, but that guy was also there. And he recognized my power. And then Oikawa started rambling out about everything. For how chill the guy likes to appear, he sometimes really isn’t.” Akaashi nods. 

  


“And what are all of their powers?” Kuroo’s eyes widen. 

  


“Right! Yes. So I can see in the dark, teleport through shadows, and I’m an umbrakinetic, which basically means I can control darkness. Sawamura has telepathy and telekinesis and he’s probably the last person you’d suspect to have at least a quirk, much less be so OP. We’ll work on how you can block him out but after a bit it’s easy to recognize when your sharing head space with him. It’s actually pretty nice. 

  


“Ushijima can control plants. So he can just make them come out of  _ nowhere  _ and those buggers are super fast. And Oikawa can create illusions and shape shift. Just like Sawamura he has dual powers. What about you, Akaashi? Make lightning come out of nowhere?”

  


He shakes his head. “Weather manipulation is the simplest thing I can call it. It’s a wide spectrum. I can create and control lightning, rain, snow, wind-”

  


“So any atmospheric elemental manipulation?” Kuroo asks, stroking his chin. 

  


“I don’t quite understand what you mean by that, but yes.” Kuroo hums. 

  


“That’s good. Very good. Do you want me to take you to your house or room?”

  


“Room, please.” 

  


“Alright.”

  


It’s strange, travelling through the shadows. It’s like a smooth, cold blanket made of gel is touching him and he sees flashes of muted colors until he’s suddenly in his closet. Kuroo opens the door for him. 

  


“There we go” he says, amused. “Gotta go. See yah Saturday!” 

  


Akaashi never thought himself to ever be a villain. But here he is, dressed casually with his sunglasses having just secretly meeting three people from rival volleyball teams and his friend. 

  


“What sort of world am I living in?” He asks with a sigh, tilting his head up to stare at his ceiling.


	2. Chapter 2

_ Present Day (Two years later) _

It was a late night. A very,  _ very  _ late night. As in it hadn’t even ended. 

Daichi was tired, walking down the street towards school. It was Sunday, and Sunday has practice. And it wasn’t that early. No, it was nine in the morning. But the last nearly twelve hours had been tiresome and he wasn’t able to get any sleep because the weekends were when they did the most work so in the hour and half he could of gotten sleep, he finished his homework. 

And no sleep is better than an hour and a half anyway. He’d be more tired. He also wishes that the school week was five days just like the rest of the world rather than six. 

It was half an hour after he had returned home from practice last night that Kuroo had appeared in his room, already wearing his all black “supervillain” suit which consisted of steel-toed combat boots, tough, protective pants, a skin-tight turtleneck, steel knuckled leather gloves, long hooded coat with a red underside, hair held down, sunglasses on, and mask hanging from his neck, the only color on the whole outfit being decorative red accents. 

Since their group was formed a little over two years ago, they only had some allies. Their biggest was one they got through Ushijima, one Sakusa Kiyoomi, a person with the quirk of being able to see the smallest of details who Daichi publically knows not-so merely as Japan’s number one ace while privately knows him as a friend, a confidant, and a teen whose parents are powerless humans who work with the higher-ups of the Heroes Association. 

“Got information from Sakusa” Kuroo says, not averting his eyes as Daichi quickly strips to his underwear, quickly suiting up while Kuroo fills him in. “We’re going to the border of Fukushima. Rouge, Kesu, and Firehead are patrolling that area.” Daichi holds in a flinch. 

“Who’s our target?”

“Kogeyami Akuma. He hired some yakuza to make a distraction and then he killed a three politicians who were rooting for reforms on the Association’s power.” Daichi finishes pulling on his suit. It’s almost identical to Kuroo’s uniform except for the fact that the tight turtleneck is sleeveless, there’s no coat, his gloves reach mid-forearm, there’s nothing covering his eyes, and the accents on his suit are orange. He puts on a light fireproof hooded cloak, pulling the weighted hood over his head so it shadows the exposed upper half of his face, pulling the mask up so that it covers the lower half of his face. 

“Anyone else joining us?”

“Toshi. Tooru was going to join us but his three buddies invaded his house.” There’s was no question about Akaashi- they learned from him that Bokuto always likes practicing late on Saturdays, since their Sunday practices are in the evening. He would of been helpful, calling on rain to douse out any of Firehead’s powers. 

Kuroo grabs his arm and after a few seconds of feeling warmth and cold, the flitting feeling of travelling through shadows, they appear at the location and Daichi has to swallow the lump in his throat that always appears when he has to face any of these heroes. 

Daichi opens his eyes to show that he’s on top of a building, Ushijima giving him a small nod before looking back at the three heroes, the purple lines of his suit rippling with his movement. His outfit is identical to Daichi’s except rather than a cloak, he wears a purple lined hooded jacket. Daichi still remembers two years ago, when he and Kuroo introduced Akaashi to the rest of the thing and one of the first things he had requested is that they get a makeover. And Daichi was thankful for that. Their new outfits were cozier, easier to tell each other apart, and they looked nice. Daichi joins Kuroo and Ushijima with watching the superheroes. 

Rouge, Kesu, and Firehead. 

Also known as Sugawara Koushi, Tsukishima Kei, and Taketora Yamamoto. 

In all of their volleyball teams, it wasn’t a secret amongst the team ho was a superhero or not: it was inevitable in case they needed to leave because they were suddenly summoned or there was a crime in the area. Karasuno’s team has a surprising amount of powered and quirked members: all of them, except for- to their knowledge- their captain, Sawamura Daichi. 

Daichi wasn’t as brave as Kuroo, who was able to downplay his power as a quirk of seeing in the dark. He can’t really downplay being a telepath or telekinetic. Sure, he could of pretended to have the quirk of being an empath, but Ennoshita is an empath. He can read emotions and tell if someone’s lying from a single truth. When Ennoshita had touched him once and asked if he had a quirk or power, he had to used his telepathy to hide the lie as a truth. For something that sounds so simple, it’s actually a hard feat to accomplish. And he felt bad, bad for lying to everyone on his team. But it everything goes right, then  _ this year  _ will be the year when he no longer needs to lie. This will be the year where he and his fellow “supervillains” can finally finish the mission they started two years ago. 

Suga AKA Rouge. He has powers close to Oikawa’s, both of them gifted with what you can only call magic. Although it’s less powerful than Oikawa’s, he can create translucent barriers which is impenetrable by any quirk or power. Only people with teleportation powers and Kuroo can get inside or past them as long as there’s a large enough shadow, since his shadow travel by-passes the barrier and the dark energy he controls is the opposite of any magic.

Tsukishima AKA Kesu. One simple but terrifying power: he can drain someone’s quirk or power. A quirk requires one touch but the more he touches you, the more of your powers are drained and weakened until it’s all gone and the only way you can get some of your power is to wait six hours. It takes twenty-four hours to fully recover. They learned this because Kuroo got too close and was cornered four months ago. 

Taketora AKA Firehead. His powers are the easiest to explain: pyrokinesis. He’s especially fond with creating fireballs and spiking them at the closest enemy, his control over it allowing the ball to follow it’s target, increase or decrease speed, and even grow in size. 

Those three are their teammates. Suga is one of Daichi’s best friends and he feels so  _ bad  _ about lying to him. Suga always tells him, Asahi, and Shimizu about his patrols. He tells them about any villains they faced, how heroes from other teams are doing. It was warming during either training camps or practice matches to see heroes in their civilian forms trying to act like they don’t recognize each other while still being too friendly to have just met. 

It was nice. Like one big, large, trusting group of people who would never spill each other's secret to the world. But it wasn’t like five of them weren’t like a family: the five of them only had each other to tell their secrets. Daichi still remembers the first time Akaashi had to face off with Bokuto. It had been beautiful, Bokuto in his gold and white suit as Owlman tumbling and soaring through the sky with large wings and glinting talons while Akaashi would evade him, riding the wind, cloth flapping around him. Bokuto would aim to injure and knock out while Akaashi would simply try to evade and get him off his trail. At the very most he would blast him back with a burst of wind or snow, create a literally wall of lightning strikes, or summon a miniature hurricane. And that first time, Akaashi still really didn’t want to injure anyone. Bokuto had ended up tearing into the skin of Akaashi’s left shoulder blade, leaving three large and two large claw marks which had scarred. It led to Akaashi always having to be cautious in the club room, taking him to an underground doctor, and the whole team sleeping over at Daichi’s house. 

Long story short, turns out it had been a trap. There were, in total, ten top-tiered heroes there and Tsukishima, Suga, and Taketora had been protected by one of Suga’s barriers while they watched the fight, which was apparently a “lesson” for them. 

More like what should of been a one sided battle. Well, sucks for them, the three of them are more powerful than all of them even if they had been cloned ten times over.

The battle was rough, lasting hours, and they couldn’t run away since one of the heroes could create barriers of light and surrounded the whole area with a ring of light, devoiding the place of shadows. Out of the ten, there were two people besides their target who were on their “hitlist”. 

Daichi had been able to let loose that day. 

He had directed a heroes to another. He read minds and predicted moves. He rooted for weaknesses and pulled headaches out of people. He sent himself into the air kicking a toe into a heroes ribs. He’s hold his arms out and bend and curl his fingers, bashing heads and tugging heroes to the ground until he was the only one in the air and the rest had to dodge and cut down the vines that would erupt from the ground and bind them, they’d have to run away from Kuroo’s dark energy which was like a black hole, even with the light barrier, spreading out until it blocked out the barrier of light, the only light being the moon. 

Then more heroes came. And the three of them had to flee. They couldn’t just disappear or else the blame might go to their three schoolmates, so they ran, past where the destroyed light barrier used to be, each of them dripping at least a little bit of blood from the hits they sustained. They defeated more of them, fourteen total, until Ushijima’s face was almost permanently scarred by a fireball, Taketora somehow having caught up. Then Kuroo transported them, all the way to Sakusa’s apartment which almost always only housed the ace, the germaphobic teen cringing at the sight of them. But that had been the only hesitation he had. He already had on a long-sleeve shirt, sanitary gloves, and a mask on and he took the time to tend to each of their wounds.

And now he has morning practice. Morning practice with worn out leg muscles and a slightly foggy mind from how much he had to use his power. Morning practice with a small, almost invisible bandaid next to his eye, a heavily bruised back, and a long cut across his ribs. 

“Hey, Daichi!” Daichi stops in his tracks and turns around, waving to Suga. Asahi, next to him, looking nervous as ever, probably because Suga is always so energetic. Suga looked well rested. He thinks it was only Taketora who stayed to chase after them. Suga probably felt obligated to take Tsukishima home (motherly instincts, Daichi would of teased). He doesn’t wince from the flash of pain when Suga harshly slaps him across the back. 

“Will you ever learn how to greet me less painfully?” Daichi teases, trying his hardest not to walk stiffly. Suga shakes his head. 

“Nope! And you look like you’re dead on you’re feet. You alright?” Suga points at the shadows under his eyes and Daichi nods. 

“Kuroo from Nekoma, he was texted me pretty late. And right when I was about to fall asleep, my grandmother called me.” The lies comes out of him smoothly. He can thank Oikawa for that skill. “She forgot that I’m asleep over here when she’s up and running in America. So by the time she was done, I only had two hours left so I just did my homework.”

“That’s not good” Asahi says. 

“Why don’t you take a nap in the clubroom?” Suga offers. 

“Nah.” Daichi waves his hand. “You look kinda off. Anything happen last night?” And with that, Suga brightens. 

“Oh my gods,  _ yes _ ” he grabs onto Daichi’s and Asahi’s elbows on either side of him. “So I was with Tsukki and one of the guys from Nekoma, Tanaka’s clone, and we were called there because the heroes wanted to show us how to defeat villains. But you guys know the Horsemen, right? Azazel, Erebus, Kodama, Loki, and Arashi?”

“A million times” Daichi dryly says. “Azazel’s the purple one, right?” Suga sends him a withering look. 

“Daichi” Asahi sighs. “ _ I  _ even know the difference. Now you’re going to get Koushi going on a rant.”

A rant indeed. 

“The five Horsemen!” Suga proclaims. “They were  _ there _ , they were the villains! Well, only three of them, but you don’t know how much power was there” he rubs his fingers together for emphasis. “There were like, ten heroes waiting to ambush them. And Azazel, he just like zoomed up and for them it was like fighting was nothing. And I haven’t seen him or Erebus use their powers much but it was like” he shudders “ _ They’re too powerful _ . And Kodama, he barely even had to move! He took a few hits but his vines were like” he spreads his arms wide. “I can only call them impressive. And then  _ more  _ heroes came and for some reason, instead of high-tailing it out, they just ran and made the back-up chase after them, defeat them as well, and  _ then  _ go poof! But that later part I learned from the Nekoma guy- I had to take Tsukki home at a reasonable time, you know.” 

“And here’s another summary” Asahi groans. 

“And the Horsemen” Suga says. “I want to be the first one to take one of them down. It’ll be hard because of how  _ powerful  _ they are and I’m guessing they’re a bunch of thirty-year old guys with no jobs” Daichi lets out a snort. He’s going to text the chat that line, see how Oikawa and Kuroo react. “But I think they’re athletes or something because the shirt and the arms. Azazel is the leader, the telekinetic and telepath, the orange one. Loki is the turquoise flashy one with magic like me and shapeshifting powers. Kodama is the purple one and his name pretty much tells you his power- plants. Arashi is the blue one and the pretty one, conveniently the guy Owlman’s bent on taking down, and he has ultimate weather powers. And then Erebus, the red one, the guy with shadow powers and I think dark magic or something. He gives me the creeps.” 

“Someone creeped you out?” Daichi teases. Suga shudders and nods. 

“All of them are kinda creepy with their hoods and stuff.” Asahi even nods with him. “But I like their suits.”

“You’ve said this already” Daichi drawls. 

“I know, but  _ you  _ didn’t get to see Azrael’s arms up close!” He pats Daichi’s bicep. “They’re more impressive than yours.”  _ But they  _ are  _ mine _ . He feels a little bit insulted and it shows. “Aw. Don’t worry Daichi! At least you’re not a homeless buff thirty year old.” Daichi rolls his eyes and Karasuno High School slowly comes into sight. 

“Enough talk about heroes and villains” Daichi says. “We have a bunch of first years to handle.”

* * *

  
  


“ _ Wakatoshi-kun _ , where were you!?” Ushijima turns the light to his dorm room on, staring down, unimpressed, to Tendou Satori sprawled over his bed, Semi Eita reading a book, and Goshiki nearly destroying his laptop when he gets up to bow a greeting to the ace. 

“Tokyo” he simply says. He had stayed at the Sakusa penthouse with Kuroo, both of them catching a few hours of rest. It was nearly one. He remembers Daichi telling them that he has morning practice. He wonders how the spiker is doing. Now to do the one thing he’s bad at:

Lying. 

“Emergency informational meeting for the national team.” Ushijima says. “There’s going to be a practice week at the end of the month. I will be unable to come to school that week.” That wasn’t a lie. 

The three teens nod. Practice has been just a little lax after they came back from Summer Nationals. He still remembers Semi boasting about them having beat Aoba Johsai in the Summer Interhigh. 

It was hard pretending that he and Oikawa weren’t actually close. It was easy to fake his side of the hatred because Oikawa really should of come to Shiratorizawa. Just like how he thinks Daichi, Kuroo, and Akaashi should of come to Shiratorizawa- it would of benefited all of them and the dorms would of made it easier for the latter two to stay. It’s fun sending them pamphlets in the mail about coming to Shiratorizawa. They already agreed that some time this year they’ll visit Shiratorizawa for a day or something. Ushijima is secretly excited for when that day comes. He occasionally participates in the free classes the equestrian club gives so when they come, he’ll be sure to teach them how to ride. 

Goshiki starts talking about something and Tendou moves over so Ushijima can sit on his bed. Even after the few hours of sleep he got, his muscles are still sore and he has to be ready for practice tomorrow. 

He doesn’t realize he’s fallen asleep. When he wakes up, it’s three. Semi is gently shaking him awake and Tendou is holding a plate of food. He on his bed, lying down, tucked into the blanket, slippers taken off. 

The guilt stirs in the back of his mind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the powers we got so far:  
> So both Suga and Oikawa have what I call "magic". I don't mean this by actual magic like Harry Potter. If any of you are followers of the Marvel universe or have watched the movies, it's more like Scarlet Witch/ Wanda's magic, which is just being able to gather a specific sort of energy and manipulate it. Suga and Oikawa have different types of "magic". Suga's allows him to create temporary things that can negate powers it touches. Oikawa's creates illusions and I plan on making his more magic-esque, so he can probably make little charms and stuff. 
> 
> Heroes:  
> Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
> Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers   
> Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
> Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
> Quirks:  
> Ennoshita - empath and lie-detector via touch
> 
> "Villains":  
> Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
> Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
> Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
> Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
> Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation   
> "Villain ally":  
> Sakusa - can see and is aware of the smallest details; works as their informant and his place is basically their safe-house
> 
> Background infor:  
> 1) Suga's superhero name, Rouge, was inspired by Scarlet Witch because her powers were an inspiration for Suga's  
> 2) Tsuki's superhero name, Kesu, means "to erase" and it was Yamaguchi who came up with the name for Tsuki  
> 3) The Horsemens' supervillain names came a few weeks after they got the suits Akaashi requested. They chose their names after they got rather annoyed with online articles, blogs, and the newspaper for just making up different names for them, the most popular being Red, Orange, Turquoise, Gold, and Purple. So they just chose cool sounding names that were called in some blogs.   
> 4) Daichi's supervillain name, explained. How I see it, heroes and superheroes and civilians all know that Daichi is the leader of the group. He's seen as the most powerful because he has not just one but two of the rarest powers in the world: telepathy and telekinesis. He's mysterious and powerful (just imagine him in the outfit I described with the hood and cloak flowing behind him) and dangerous. His original name was going to be Nero after the cruel Roman emperor, but then I decided Azrael, which was going to be Kuroo's villain name, because his telepathy is seen by the heroes as a destructive force. They see his powers in a negative light, making him seem so much more evil. I did research and Azrael is seen as the angel of death, which the heroes and everyone see Daichi's villain-persona being able to bring.   
> 5) Akaashi's supervillain name, explained. I wanted it to be cool. It had to be weather related. So I went to google translate and went to English to Japanese and spent ten minutes plugging in weather terms and I pressed the back and forth button a lot until it was windstorm or something like that and I got Arashi. I typed that into Japanese to English and in english, according to google, Arashi is tempest. It's cool. It's weather related. I kept it.   
> 5) Ushijima's supervillain name, explained. A kodama is basically the Japanese equivalent of a Greek dryad. I spent a lot of time researching plant-related dieties from numerous religions and mythology areas. The list of names I had for him ended up being female diety or hero names. Kodama seemed pretty gender-neutral and I saw myself being able to call Ushi that.   
> 6) Kuroo's supervillain name, explained. Erebus is the greek god of, quite literally, darkness. It fits in perfectly. I originally wanted Kuroo's name to be associated with death, since I couldn't think up any shadow diety. But then Daichi stole Azrael. Then I was going to make him Thanatos but that's too long. Shade was another option but- no offense- it wasn't that unique. And there's already a fictional character with that name. Then it was going to be the god Chaos but then I saw a family tree and chose Erebus. The name's a bit strange, but so is fanfiction  
> 7) Oikawa's supervillain name, explained. When I asked my sis what Oikawa's powers should be, she thought I was making an Avengers AU. So she said "He'd be a good Loki." And I was like. "Huh. He would." So I basically gave him Loki's powers but a bit more toned down. And then I gave him the name as well because it fits in pretty well. His color highlight was going to be green but I wanted the suits to also reflect their school, and Seijoh's colors are white and turquoise. And turquoise is almost green and it looks cooler with black.   
> 8) Why Sakusa? Because I started reading SakuAtsu fanfiction. Sakusa is headcanoned a lot as being friends with Ushijima so I used that to my advantage.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback to the Horsemen's debut year  
> IwaOi feelz  
> And Yaku is thinking thoughts  
> And Iwaizumi taking one step forward

“Oikawa, what the hell is that?” Oikawa freezes in the club room. It was just him, early that Wednesday morning. He had gotten in a little skirmish with three heroes at a shop a few blocks away. They were trying to make the store owner pay for “protection”. And all Oikawa had been trying to do was buy something to snack on. But he had to cast an illusion on himself, make him appear as the oh-so-fearsome right hand man of the Horsemen, Loki. 

But they hadn’t one. 

And it turns out one of them had a power that was barely just more significant than a quirk because the guy could spit  _ acid _ . 

So now he has a hole in his blazer and shirt and a burn on his shoulder. 

“Oh, it’s nothing, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa smiles, all teeth and eyes closed with the force of it before he lowers his practice shirt, covering the wound. But suddenly Iwaizumi is in front of him, stopping his arm from descending. His eyes are narrowed. Angry and concerned. 

“Be quiet” Iwaizumi hisses. “Take your shirt off.” There’s a flash of fear in Iwaizumi’s eyes and Oikawa knows that he can’t hide it. He already has an illusion set over the other scars he got over the past two years. Especially the first year, when Daichi’s powers still hadn’t evolved as fast and nearly impossibly as they suddenly had at the end of their first year. Oikawa had been their main defensive force then, and he still had to hone his powers. And he had neglected his own safety a lot. He still remembers the first time he was actually pretty much fatally injured. 

_ They were a month away from being done with being a first year. This fight, it’s a troublesome. It’s really  _ really  _ troublesome. It’s even, five on five, right by the border to the Shimane prefecture. Three of the superheroes were Japanese but the others were American and Korean. Probably some superhero training program. But that means they’re wild cards. Two of the three Japanese superheroes are on their “hitlist” so they already have research done on them.  _

_ The three Japanese heroes are siblings. All three of them have the same powers: flight and shooting spheres of electricity. The Korean guy seems to have the ability to create and shoot ice in different shapes and the American guy is unknown.  _

_ “EREBUS” Oikawa watches Daichi shout. Kuroo quickly sinks into a shadow, trusting Daichi, popping out of the teams shadow less than a moment later, which is all the time needed for a large ball of electricity to crash into where he had been standing. Another flies their way but Daichi just swiped his arm, an invisible force pushing it too the side, forcing it to crash into the ground.  _

_ Akaashi is in the air, flitting into the clouds, one of the siblings following after him, shooting electricity at him before dodging either a strike of lightning, a large gust of wind, or a burst of hail. Oikawa had smiles when Akaashi had managed to hit him with hail some time ago. He’ll have a lot of painful bruises.  _

_ “Azrael” Ushijima asks, moving closer to Kuroo and Daichi, the two fending off the next barrage of electricity and icicles with Daichi’s telekinesis and black holes appearing and swallowing the icicles. “Have you discovered his power yet?” He nods towards the American, who’s watching them behind dark sunglasses. _

_ “Yes” Daichi says, sweat gathering at his brow beneath the hood. “It has something to do with weakening a power. I really don’t know what it means by that- his mind is really jumbled, he’s thinking too quickly. He’s planning something.” A vine shoots out of the ground and grabs an icicle out of the air before whipping it back into the sky. There’s a cry on pain.  _

_ “Good shot” Kuroo pants. His hood is down, hair starting to plaster with sweat and melted shavings of ice.  _

_ Suddenly, there’s a thunderous boom and one of the siblings, the one who had been chasing after Akaashi, is falling to the ground. Sibling number two catches them, gently lowering them to the ground before turning to Akaashi in the sky.  _

_ “ARASHI!” Oikawa yells. His power thrums through him and the colors of the world becomes shades of turquoise for a moment and he's suddenly in the air, letting out a roar. Powerful legs kick off the ground and everything looks a lot smaller. He’s shape shifted before, loads of times, mostly birds or dogs so he can reach somewhere quicker. But this is the first time he’s tried turning into something larger than a human.  _

_ Or something that doesn’t actually exist.  _

_ “YOU GO! Do you see him Dai? He’s a freaking  _ dragon _!” Kuroo exclaims from the ground. Akaashi changes direction mid air and he’s so tiny, moving so that Oikawa is protecting him. He opens his jaws and lets out an illusion that seems like fire, forcing the two to take to the ground. A bunch of vines shoot up from the ground wrapping around the two and forcing them against the ground.  _

_ Oikawa flies back to the ground and he turns to take care of the Korean, only to come face to face with the America, who’s staring up at him. _

_ Whose sunglasses are now off.  _

_ Steely blue meet soft brown and suddenly Oikawa feels like he can’t move. And then there’s pain.  _

_ There’s screams around him but Oikawa’s eyes can’t leave the American’s. He can’t even open his mouth no matter how much he begs to cry out. He feels himself change, turning into a human again, and, finally, the spell breaks. He looks down and he sees a large icicle sticking out right beneath his chest, coated with blood, the heat causing pink droplets of blood and water to fall. _

_ “Oh.” He says, and suddenly the American is on the ground, an invisible force having pushed him down before he’s turned into a green cocoon of vines. There’s flashes of lightning all around him and he knows the fight is still going on. _

_ “Hey, hey. Tooru, look at me.” Oikawa looks up to meet Kuroo’s eyes. His mask is pulled down, that itself a risk. But his eyes are wide and rimmed with tears. “I-I’m taking you to the doctor’s, alright? Sukehiro, remember, the super kind underground doctor who gaze us those cookies? Yeah. Just don’t close you’re eyes, ‘kay? Stay with me Tooru. The others will take care of the rest.” _

_ Oikawa couldn’t keep his eyes open. But the next time he did, it was to a healed body, a scar courtesy of a kind underground doctor with the ability to heal up the body’s natural healing process, the fact that Daichi suddenly got a power boost to protect him and Kuroo from the combined powers of the three remaining guys, and that he had missed the rare weekend practice they have under the excuse he was visiting a friend in Tokyo.  _

Oikawa takes his shirt off and Iwaizumi’s hands go to the burn on his shoulder. He lightly touches it and Oikawa hisses. 

“The hell didn’t you get this from?” There’s fear in his voice and his fingers are lightly shaking. 

“It’s nothing” Oikawa tries to protest.

“I’m taking you to Yaku.” Iwaizumi decides. Oikawa frowns. 

“Who’s this Yaku you speak of, Iwa-chan? Some top-secret person from your superhero buddy group?” He lightly teases. 

There it is. Such as how Akaashi has Bokuto to think about, Oikawa has Iwaizumi. But it wasn’t like Moveo has a rivalry with Loki. In Oikawa’s opinion, Iwaizumi’s superhero name was super lame. It’s just a latin word! It doesn’t have nice symbolism or anything like the Horsemen. The concept of Iwaizumi’s power is really simple: teleportation. But what’s clever is  _ how  _ he uses it. Iwaizumi could teleport himself and can choose to teleport anything he’s touching as well. So he can technically make himself fly by just teleporting in the air a lot. 

Besides Iwaizumi, Oikawa knows that Makki and Mattsun are also heroes. Oikawa is only supposed to know Iwaizumi’s a hero and what his name is. The whole team knows that Iwaizumi, Hanamaki, and Matsukawa have powers, but not that the three are heroes. Only Oikawa knows. But he’s not supposed to know that Makki and Mattsun are heroes. But he has to. He learned when he became a “supervillain”. He and the other four made a list of all their friends who became heroes, so if they ever confront them, they know not to really engage them. Because there are such things as accident. 

So Oikawa already knows about Yaku, who simply goes by Healer. He’s a very powerful healer, more powerful than their underground doctor, Sukehiro-sama. Oikawa knows about him because of Kuroo. Yaku is Nekoma’s libero. It’s kind of annoying, actually, the amount of heroes that go their schools. But, more specifically, are on the volleyball team. 

They had files (which was creepy) on each of their teammates who were superheroes or who had quirks. Which was most of them, all in Karasuno’s case. They were extensive, hand-typed by each of them and stored at their base of operation (Kiyoomi-kun’s study room). There were always details added in, to help them out in case they actually have to face one of their friends, which has happened quite a bit. So they know their weak-points so they can use that to help them get away without hurting them. And, just in case, if they found out who they are, they know how to stop themselves from being killed by their friends. 

“Okay” Oikawa resigns himself. 

“And, um, yeah” Iwaizumi says. “Don’t tell anyone, okay? Yaku is one of us. He’s a healer.” He says in a quieter tone. “How the heck did you get that anyway?”

“It’s an acid burn” Oikawa says. “I think my arm has gone numb. It only hurt when you touched it.”Iwaizumi look incredulous but there’s something in his eyes, a different look which Oikawa isn’t used to seeing.

“How did you get an  _ acid burn _ !?”

“Well, that corner store, there were some people there hassling the cashier and I told them to stop but one of them spit on me and the spit burned through my uniform” Oikawa whines. “But the cashier got them good after that.” 

“How do you keep getting into these shitty situations” Iwaizumi sighs. “Take care of yourself sometimes too.” 

“Aww~ you care!” Oikawa exclaims, pulling his practice t-shirt back on. Iwaizumi mutters something and he tightly grips Oikawa’s upper arm. Oikawa’s stomach turns and he yelps because he’s in the  _ air _ . “NO! IWA-CHAN IWA-CHAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOI-” but he cuts himself off because Iwaizumi is  _ laughing _ . 

Oikawa swallows and squeezes his eyes shut. He has flown before, but it’s because of either of these three reasons 1) Daichi getting annoyed and keeping him in the air 2) he turns into an animal and flies 3) Akaashi moves him through the air, there’s something different this time. Because he can’t reveal he has powers. He doesn’t have a safety net. 

The wind whips around him, his hair tickling his forehead, the morning air cold, the only warmth the hand on his arm. 

Iwaizumi had gotten his superpower before Oikawa. At first, his parents and Oikawa had thought it was a quirk of very mild wind manipulation. But one day he suddenly appeared by a toy across the room or got on the high branches of the tree and then they found out “Oh, Hajime can teleport.” They had just become teenagers when Iwaizumi had showed him what he could do with his powers- basically fly. And no matter how much he asked, Iwaizumi never let him “fly” with him. 

Until now.

“Hey. Open your eyes. Look at me. I won’t let you fall.” There's a hand on his other arm and Oikawa slowly opens his eyes, looking down at Iwaizumi who’s holding him. He can see behind (below, whatever) the ground, so many kilometers away. Oikawa’s breath catches. Iwaizumi is smiling, soft. The hood of his grey hoddie flaps in the air. “Calm down, calm down.” Iwaizumi adjusts his weight so they’re falling on their sides. 

Oikawa’s breath catches. 

Behind Iwaizumi is the rising sun. His profile is outlined by soft pinks and gold, making his olive eyes seem both darker and lighter than they actually are. He finds himself smiling and Iwaizumi pulls him closer, hugging him. Oikawa doesn’t hesitate to hug him back, both of them falling through the air. 

“This is nice” Oikawa says, fingers tightly gripping the back of his hoodie, tucking his head under Iwaizumi’s chin. The only way he knows that Iwaizumi hums in reply to that is that he can feel the vibrations that come form his best friends throat. 

“I knew you’d like this” Iwaizumi says. “I was going to do it some other time but it just felt like the right time.” He has one arm curled around Oikawa’s waist, the other holding Oikawa’s head to his chest. 

Oikawa doesn’t know how long they stay like that, falling through the sky before he’d feel a turn in his stomach and they’d be higher in the air. Each time he opens his eyes it’s too see the turning world around them. When he focuses on his fingers, he feels the soft fabric of Iwaizumi’s worn hoodie. When he lets himself listen, he hears Iwaizumi’s gentle breathing above him, the distant sounds of animals and people alike waking up, and fabric fluttering around them. 

“Tooru” Hajime says. “I’m going to take you to Yaku now.” Oikawa tightens his grip on Iwaizumi.

“Hajime” Oikawa says, sure that Iwaizumi didn’t hear, but they don’t go anyway. They’re still flying. 

“I think you’ve always known this” Iwaizumi says after a moment “But I love you.” Oikawa’s heart pounds. It beats like a drum, a drum which is being hit over and over again with the attempt of punching a hole through the skin. 

His heart breaks. 

What will Iwaizumi say when he finds out? When one day they’re standing on the battlefield, a street somewhere in Japan, the area around them littered with rubble. Will they be tumbling in the air, just like this? Will Iwaizumi have torn off Oikawa’s mask or would just not having the hood up do. He’ll somehow see through any illusion he puts up to protect his identity. And Iwaizumi is a hero. And his bosses, well, more like the bosses of his bosses bosses, are greedy, corrupt, and power hungry. And they might kill any hero who decides they aren’t going to side with them. He’s going to stop them, he and the others together, before they can do something to their friends. Iwaizumi can’t get in the way- he’ll get hurt, be it by the Association or by the fact that his whole life Oikawa has been keeping so many secrets from him. That he isn’t normal. That he isn’t normal because he doesn’t have a quirk but because he has a power. That he’s considered a supervillain. That he’s one of the five people that Iwaizumi should be either be beating into a pulp or turning him in to the authorities. 

And Oikawa knows, if Iwaizumi told him to surrender while knowing who Oikawa actually is, he would go. 

It’s selfish of him to want to keep Iwaizumi with him. It’s selfish of him to have kept this secret and now it’s grown beyond his control. It will bite him, one day or another, and he has the feeling that day’s going to come soon. 

He’ll allow himself to be selfish one more time. 

“I know” Oikawa says. “So you know I love you too.”

“Yeah” Iwaizumi’s voice is rough with emotion. “I know that too.” He pulls away in the air, so that they’re back to being connected by just Iwaizumi’s hand on his arm, but they’re smiles are different. Oikawa’s stomach turns, not just because of the teleportation. His stomach turns a few more times, each time the area around him sounding different, and a few more trips later, his feet touch solid ground. And they’re in Nekoma’s gym. 

He has to remind himself to act like he’s wondering where they are. 

“Oh, we’re in a gym!” Oikawa explains. “Where are we?” Iwaizumi’s hand slides down, fingers momentarily brushing before they separate. They may of said those words to each other but they didn’t say anything more. 

“Nekoma” Iwaizumi says. “There’s no way you haven’t heard of them. They usually make it to nationals.” Oikawa nods. 

“Ah, yes. The red cat people.” Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. 

“Idiot. Anyway, yes. Yaku’s their libero.”

“What do you need from Yaku?” Oikawa flinches and yelps and then there’s a familiar ugly cackle. “I don’t think I’ve seen any of you two around” Kuroo smoothly lies. He holds a hand out. “Kuroo Tetsurou, captain of Nekoma boy’s volleyball club.” He’s looking straight at Oikawa, a hidden smirk on his face. 

“Oikawa Tooru, captain of Aoba Johsai boy’s volleyball club.” They shake hands. “You don’t look very captainly.” Kuroo raises an eyebrow. 

“Oh ho ho, then what do I look like exactly?”

“Like you rolled out of bed.” He says with a wink and Iwaizumi sighs. 

“Can we just see Yaku?”

“You didn’t introduce yourself” Kuroo reminds, placing a hand over his heart and pointing his nose up. “We pride our manners here at the noble establishment of Nekoma. We follow a strict code of bushido.”

“Iwaizumi” he drawls, sending Kuroo the Look. “Vice captain. Aoba Johsai.” Kuroo grimaces. 

“Alright. Fine fine. Geez. Well, Yaku’s in the storage room. Some of our volleyballs got a little flat ‘cuz our ace in training got a little too excited.” Oikawa remembers Kuroo sending their group chat an image of Lev accidentally activating his powers while practicing, causing his arm to go super flexible and snap at the ball like a rubber band, causing it to ricochet off the floor and then the rafters with such a force that it became half flat. And then he tried it again and again until one of the more serious members of their team finally decided to stop him. 

Then Ushijima had sent an article to the chat advising Kuroo to forward it to Lev. It was about why exactly a player using their quirk or power in any sort of sports match to aid them leads to an automatic benching for the rest of the game. 

Iwaizumi stiffly nods, a scowl on his face. Kuroo just sends him a smirk before untucking the volleyball he has from under his arm, standing a few paces away from a wall, and starts hitting the ball, catching it on the rebound before repeating the process. 

“Oi! Yaku!” Iwaizumi says, nearly kicking open the storage room door, Oikawa right behind him. There’s a yelp and a head pops up from behind a cart of volleyballs. 

“Oh, Iwaizumi. What brings you here?” Yaku is much more cheerful in person than he seems in the photo Kuroo paperclipped to his file. And from the photos he occasional sends of him mothering the other players on the team. 

“This idiot got an acid burn from some idiot who spits acid like an idiot inside of a store.” Iwaizumi grumbles, pushing up the sleeve of Oikawa’s shirt. “Can you heal it? This guy has no sense of self-preservation. It could of gotten infected and he wouldn’t of told me until he overexaggerated how it feels and whines about how he feels like he’s dying.” Oikawa pouts. 

“I’m insulted, Iwa-chan. So cruel!” Iwaizumi smirks. Yaku smiles, a knowing look in his eyes as he looks at the two. 

“Okay. This is the Oikawa you’re always talking about?” Oikawa beams. 

“So nice, Iwa-chan. You talk about me!” 

“Shut up” Iwaizumi grumbles. “I only took you here to get you patched up.” 

Yaku nods. “It’s easy enough to heal. It won’t even scar because you got here pretty quick. He places his hands on either side of the burn, his hands pleasantly warm. His veins seem to light up a bit and Oikawa feels a warmth in his arm, right where the burn is. He sighs in relief and after a few seconds, Yaku’s hands remove from his skin and he pats where the burn was. “All good!” Oikawa looks at the skin and whistles. There’s not even a single sign of the wound! “You two can go back to practice. You might want to go before the rest come or they’ll think you’re spies.”

“Thank you, Yaku-chan.” Oikawa says with a short bow. “Well, you heard him Iwa-chan. We can’t be late for practice. We have to be responsible senpais!” Iwaizumi huffs. 

“Yeah yeah.” He holds onto Oikawa’s hand this time. What seems like nearly a minute later, they’re back inside of the Aoba Johsai boy’s volleyball club room. He notices that there are a few more bags there. Specifically Makki and Mattsun’s telling by their keychain’s, Kunimi, and Watari. Iwaizumi’s grip lingers a little longer before their hands separate. 

“Make sure you wear your brace and properly stretch your knee” Iwaizumi reminds before sitting down to take his shoes off and unzip his bag which he had thrown by the door which seemed like an hour ago when it was really probably only ten minutes ago to take out his volleyball shoes. 

“I know I know” Oikawa grins, sitting down and doing the same. 

Even with that confession. Even with the secrets weighing down on him. He knows that nothing has changed between them. And he can’t blame himself for feeling that even if Iwaizumi finds out, nothing will change. 

* * *

_ That night. . . _

Iwaizumi sits on his bed, smiling. It had been a nice day and Oikawa had just texted him goodnight. Classes were easy, nobody really screwed up a lot at practice (so no yelling courtesy of Yahaba), and his mom had made him a really nice bento. 

Flying with Oikawa that morning… he’d been thinking of doing that for  _ years _ , starting from when they were little and Oikawa finally stopped begging him to take him to the sky. Iwaizumi wonders if one day they could steal astronaut suits and he could take the two of them to space and eventually the moon. He would love that. Both of them would love that. He can already see the smile on Oikawa’s face, the two of them sitting on the surface of the moon, holding each other but unable to feel because of the suits, staring at the earth. 

Then he gets a call. He looks at the contact:  _ Yaku _ . 

He can take one more call. 

“Hello” he says. 

“Hey! Oikawa isn’t there with you, right?” Yaku asks and he sounds kind of nervous.

“Yeah. He’s not here.”

“I know it’s not really my place to say this, since it’s a private thing” Yaku rambles “But you know how when I heal someone, I basically sense them? Like I feel their emotions and feelings and their quirk or power?” Iwaizumi finds himself nodding along. 

“Yeah. So why’d you ask about Oikawa?”

“When I, um, healed him. . .” for a few moments he only hears Yaku’s breathing on the other end. “So when I h-healed him” he stutters and repeats “You said Oikawa is powerless, right? He’s normal. No quirk. No power. Nothing.”

“...Yeah?” He shifts in his bed, getting more comfortable in his bed. “What are you saying? Stick to one topic, Yaku.”

“I am!” Yaku whines. “What I’m saying is that when I healed Oikawa, I felt that I felt a power. And he seems powerful too, so it’s definitely not a quirk that he doesn’t know about. So I think either he recently manifested a power or he’s going to manifest soon.” Iwaizumi’s mind stutters. 

“Wait. Are you sure?”

“Positive. I’ve never been wrong.” Iwaizumi looks at the ceiling and he laughs. “Hey, Iwaizumi? Hajime? Are you okay?”

“Hey! This is awesome!” Iwaizumi replies. “When we were little, Oikawa was so jealous of me for manifesting a quirk. And he was so shocked and happy when it evolved into a power. I’m just really happy that he’s manifesting a power. He must of gotten a quirk already, but he just doesn’t know it. Thank you.” He says. “Honest. I’ll tell him tomorrow and we can start working on his powers. Thank you.” Yaku is silent for a few moments. 

“I’m glad I could be of help.” Yaku finally says. “But Iwaizumi, I’d advise you be quiet. Wait maybe a month for him to come to you? I don’t know why but the whole situation just feels off. There’s no way he has that much power and it hasn’t manifested in an obvious quirk.” Iwaizumi thinks the words over, rolling them around his mind. 

“Alright” he resigns himself. “I’ll wait. I’ll try and keep track of him too. Maybe I can bring Kenma here sometimes and have him stalk Oikawa” he jokes. Yaku laughs. 

“Yeah, if only he wasn’t too busy stalking Kuroo. It’s surprising how easily that guy manages to slip away from us. I swear he has a quirk of stealth or camouflage besides seeing in the dark. Honestly, I’d be scared if our captain had a power. He’s a super nice guy but knowing him it’d be something super powerful and rare. Something like the Horsemen.”

“Ah, the Horsemen.” Iwaizumi says, happy to switch the topic away from Oikawa and him manifesting powers to the side project that Bokuto has been obsessed with: cornering the Horsemen. “We got information from the Karasuno division and Taketora about the thing that happened over the weekend. I think they might have tricks up their sleeves we haven’t seen yet, even though it’s been over two years.”

“Yeah, so we called the Miya twins. Atsumu was able to make Taketora dig up some more memories about that night. We got a few pretty important pieces of information.” The Miya twins. Atsumu and Osamu Miya. Although they didn’t work for the Association, they had good powers. Osamu could teleport but he’s less powerful than Iwaizumi. Atsumu’s power is complicated. One doesn’t even notice it at first unless they’ve trained to but by then he’s finished using it. He’s stealthy, can sense slarger surface emotions, and has what can be called limited mind control which is done by him talking. A master of persuasion and manipulation because of that. He’s helped out a lot with gathering information for them, be it for their newest case, but also about the Horsemen. The first time they met, he made Iwaizumi take off his shirt in public. And it was only after he did the act did he realize that he hadn’t wanted to do that, but it was like Atsumu changed his will to want to do that. It’s hard to explain. 

He grabs his notebook and a pen and sits at his desk. 

“Okay, talk.”

“We don’t know how many of them but any number of the group live in Tokyo and Miyagi. They are also highschool students. It is implied that they’re members of one of their schools’ sports clubs.” Iwaizumi leans back in his chair. 

“Is that all?”

“A nickname for the guy in purple, Kodama, is Toshi. We’re assuming that is part of his name.” Iwaizumi nods and flips to the pages he has on Kodama. Right below the note saying he’s the tallest of the group, he puts down: 

_ \- goes to HS in either Tokyo or Miyagi - is in a sports club - has a nickname Toshi (probably part of his real name) _

“That’s all. Have a goodnight, Iwaizumi. Don’t stay up too late thinking.” Iwaizumi huffs. 

“Don’t worry, mom.” He teases. “Night to you too.” He waits for Yaku to end the call before putting his phone on charging. Then, for some reason, he finds himself flipping to Loki’s page. He waits on the sketches of Loki he’s done, details adding and changing after each time he sees the supervillain:

He’s tall and slim, wearing the mostly black attire of the Horsemen: black pants tucked into mid-shin tall boots. Skin tight but protective black turtleneck with turquoise accents and lines he did with a gel pen he borrowed from Matsukawa. Black mask covering the bottom half of his face with a thin turquoise line on top. A jacket styled like a blazer with a dark turquoise, almost black underside, with turquoise lines running up the arms, jacket usually left unbuttoned, all black hood shadowing his face. Occasionally there is a bump below his knees which Iwaizumi guesses are knee pads. And on his left wrist a green wristband which is the only thing that connects Loki as being that amateur villain who popped up with two other amateurs: Erebus and Azrael, and that was a little over two months before Iwaizumi joined the Association. But Oikawa had been pretty interested about those three amateurs who somehow popped up anywhere in Japan, and it’s only because of Oikawa’s interest back then and the blurry pictures Oikawa would show him in newspapers of the three in laughably pathetic looking suits that allowed Iwaizumi to connect those three to three of the five horsemen. They debuted their new suits with Arashi and Kodama debuting as well. 

The Horsemen. . .

Maybe Iwaizumi’s interest with them may be on the same league as Bokuto’s. He looks at Loki a little bit longer before closing it. 

One day, he can get close enough to Loki. He looks at the pen in his hand and the pen cup less than half a minute away and he teleports only the pen into the cup with perfect accuracy. And when he gets close enough to Loki, he can use his power which only Matsukawa knows about, and he will teleport that mask away from his face. 

Soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Villains":  
> Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
> Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
> Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
> Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
> Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation  
> "Villain ally":  
> Sakusa - can see and is aware of the smallest details; works as their informant and his place is basically their safe-house  
> Sukehiro-sama - underground doctor and healer
> 
> Heroes::  
> Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
> Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers  
> Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
> Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
> Iwaizumi / Moteo - teleportation via touch (learning to make things teleport without touching)  
> Yaku / Healer - can heal someone and feel their emotions, mood, power when healing  
> Kenma / Slink - invisibility  
> Lev / Geroy(герой) - elastic limbs  
> "Hero allies":  
> Atsumu - persuasion/manipulation (limited mind control), surface feelings empath, enhanced stealth  
> Osamu - Teleportation (less powerful than Iwa)  
> Quirks:  
> Ennoshita - empath and lie-detector via touch


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jump serves  
> secret friendships  
> group chats  
> S H I R A T O R I Z A W A

“So cool!” Noya exclaims, clapping excitedly before he superspeeds to Asahi’s side. “Hey, Asahi, how’re you doin’?” 

“Um, ah, good?” Asahi looks up with a small smile which looks torn between warm and panicky shock. Noya plops himself next to Asahi, who is sitting on the steps to the gym next to Suga. They’re having a quick break, which Kageyama has taken advantage of. Him and Kiyoko are standing together, Kiyoko helping the younger get better control over his hydrokinesis. 

“Kageyama’s so lucky” Noya whines. “He gets to hang out with Kiyoko-san and she talks to him!” Asahi awkwardly pats Noya’s head. 

“She talks to you too.” Asahi says. “It’s just that Kageyama is in the Association so it’s safer if he knows more about his powers. Kiyoko is the only other hydrokinetic in the area. 

Noya sighs. “I wish she was a hero. Then we could go on missions together and she’s so _powerful_.”

On Asahi’s other side, Suga lets out a hearty laugh and slaps Asahi on the back. The taller teen lets out a hack of a cough. “If we’re talking about power, then Asahi should of been a hero!” Suga says. 

The third year frowns. “Suga, it’s not safe” he says. “I don’t know what the two of you see in being a hero.”

“We get medical insurance, money, the ladies look at us, and we’re protecting everyone!” Noya pumps a fist into the air. “There was this one girl who totally tried hitting on Ryuu the other day but we already got an alert for another lil’ crime. But good job, Asahi! We can’t have you going out and getting hurt- I would be worried sick about you!”

“But that’s what I feel” Asahi grumbles. “And I have a healing factor. You know, I accidentally cut my finger off when trying to cook, but then I just wrapped it back, and it reattached to my hand in an hour? It’s so freaky!” Asahi cries. Suga stiffles his laughter. 

“What are we talking about over here?” Suga scootches a little to his left to allow Daichi to sit down. Their captain has a towel in hand and he wipes the sweat off his brow before taking a long sip of water. 

“Oh, nothing much” Suga says. “Just power stuff. You know, powers that somehow _you_ don’t have.”

“Are you sure you don’t have a quirk?” Noya insists for a thousand times. “Cuz, like, no offense Daichi-san, but you can get _really scary_ at times.” Daichi gives him one of those said scary looks. 

“I am positive” he says before turning his attention to Kiyoko and Kageyama. At some point during their discussion, Hinata had somehow escaped the confines of the gym and was gwahing and oohing and kapowing over the two’s powers. 

They had bounced back relatively quickly after being defeated by Aoba Johsai. On the good side, they have a training camp in Tokyo soon. And Daichi is actually happy about that because Nekoma is hosting and Fukurodani is also going to be there. It will be nice, hanging out with Kuroo and Akaashi in public. And then his eyes narrow. Because right now Noya, Hinata, and Kageyama can be taking this break to refresh a bit of their exam material. 

“So, Noya” Daichi says. “Maybe. . .have you thought about your exams during this time? Maybe freshening up on your material?” A quick peak into Noya’s mind entertained him. The boy went through a series thoughts and feelings: shock, a complete blankness of thought, a vague image of Asahi patting him on the shoulder, a bunch of fire, and then a demonized version of Daichi, then a sheet of paper with a hundred on it. 

“YES SIR YES!” Noya exclaims, the boy quickly stands and runs, yelling for Tanaka. The shock of the movement and the high volume causes Asahi to flinch, his trio of forearm length silver claws partially erupting from between knuckles. Suga and Daichi give to the side incase Asahi suddenly moves and ends up skewering them. 

There’s one, two, three seconds of silence and Asahi mumbles an apology, a devastated look on his face. The claws retract back into his arms, the holes they made quickly filling, the small amount of blood that leaked drying on his skin. 

“Sorry” he says at long last. Suga moves over and slings an arm across Asahi’s shoulders. 

“Hey, it’s alright it’s alright” the silver haired boy repeats, comforting their friend. “It’s not fault you have powers that make you super dangerous and basically invincible even though you’re like a big huge teddy bear.”

“I could of hurt Daichi” Asahi laments. “And Takeda-sensei can’t really heal big wounds and Coach Ukai would of killed me and maybe Daichi would of _died_.”

“I’m fine” Daichi says. “I’m fine. I may not have powers but I know how to take care of myself. How do you think I keep the lot of you under control?” Asahi bites his lower lip and sighs. 

“That’s true.” Daichi enters Asahi’s mind, feeling the torment in there. He makes sure not to really “touch” anything since the last time he did that, it seemed like Asahi felt him. He lets trickles of calm into Asahi, quickly calming him down. Feelings of acceptance, of peace. Gently erasing the trickles of guilt and shame. 

_I may not have powers_. . .powers which you would need to know about. The only one of his abilities that he allows himself to use around his team is not really manipulating their emotions but helping to induce some feelings, like what he did right now. 

Asahi, for someone so gentle and kind, probably is the second most powerful person on their team besides Daichi in terms of the strength of their power. His claws are deadline, his hearing and sense of smell (strangely enough) are very powerful, and the speed and degree to which he can heal himself is greater than the best healers in Japan, as far as Daichi was able to find out. 

Kiyoko is also a powerful hydrokinetic. She’d been approached numerous times by the Association but turned them down each and every time. 

He’s considered, numerous times, telling Kiyoko everything. About the Association’s corruption, about him having powers, about the Horsemen and the technically six man team they have (five on the front line one behind the scenes). He’s tried reading Kiyoko’s mind to see what she was thinking but her thoughts were hard to catch. There are some people whose minds have natural and/or subconscious protection against things from the telepathy branch of powers, such as mind reading, mind control, dream placement, emotion inducement, etc. And the defenses are hard to sneak past so he only catches prominent surface thoughts from her. 

“Alright, Karasuno!” Daichi calls. “Let’s get back to practicing. Don’t give me that face Kageyama- alright, fine, Kiyoko. You have five minutes.”

If he wanted Kiyoko to join, if he really wanted to, he would of done so already. And he knows she would of accepted, probably staying behind the scenes with Sakusa. He knows how hard this life is, and when Kiyoko does something, she goes all in. He doesn’t want her, or anyone else, to lead the double-life he’s had for a little over two years now. 

The sounds of serves ricocheting off the floor or hitting the net surround him. Suga hits another serve to his left, making it smoothly over the net. A textbook serve. He grabs a ball from the cart, lifts it in front of his face.

_“Dai-chan” Oikawa had whined. “You’re approaching the jump serve all wrong. Here, start from heeeeeeere. Yeah. Okay, now. In a nice arc- time it. Yes yes YES! See? I_ told _you so.”_

_“Tooru, we’re supposed to be getting ready for patrol.”_

_“Not my fault Omi’s penthouse thingie has a volleyball court. Now, do you want to jump serve some more or not?” . . . . . “Thought so. And swing faster next time!”_

“Hey Suga” Daichi says, tilting his head to the side and flashing a grin at his best friend. “Do you think I could do a jump serve?” Asahi grimaces to his right. 

“Daichi, please don’t hurt yourself.” Daichi waves him off.

“What do you think?”

Suga is in thought for a few moments, trying to looks serious. His face cracks and he lets out a laugh. 

“I will buy you a meat bun if it reaches the net.” Suga teases. Daichi looks at the ball in his hand, feigning unsureness. “Fine, _two_ meat buns. So try not to fall on your butt, alright?” 

“Woah, Daichi, you’re gonna try a jump serve?” Tanaka exclaims. “I thought only Kageyama and Asahi could do jump serves!” He crosses his arms. “I wanna see _this_.” Daichi sends him a look. He eyes the end of the court and walk back the appropriate distance. He bounces the ball a few times before holding it up in front of him. By now, Kiyoko and Kageyama have returned, the latter watching Daichi, having heard from Hinata’s squawking that Daichi was going to try a jump serve. Although he has nearly perfected his own serve, heavily based off of Oikawa’s, he likes to see the variation his own technique has with others, such as Asahi’s jump serve. 

Daichi tosses the ball up _it’s perfect_ . He keeps his eyes on it as he runs, speeding up, racing gravity to reach it before the ground does. When it just starts coming down, Daichi jumps, bending his limbs the way Oikawa taught him, bring his arm forward. _There. I feel it_. He slams his arm forward and the ball flies over the net and slams on the back line as Daichi lands on his feet. 

“GWAH THAT WAS SO AWESOME! TEACH ME DAICHI-SAN!” Hinata pleads. Daichi chuckles, ruffling the boy’s hair. Noya suddenly appears, also begging to be taught even though he’ll never get to use it. 

“Suga, two meat buns.” Daichi reminds. “I’m pretty sure that was a fluke, though.” Not actually. He could of used it against Seijoh but Oikawa made him promise not to use it until after Seijoh faced them. And then won. 

On the side, Kageyama’s head tilts to the side, eyes slightly narrowed. Even with watching that serve so many times, he can’t duplicate it. But Daichi. . .limb for limb except for the distance from the end of the court was Oikawa’s infamous jump serve. The same running pattern, timing ratio for jumping up, same spin on the ball even! He remembers Iwaizumi once telling Kageyama when Oikawa refused to teach him that the thing about Oikawa’s serve was some sort of secret with his hand’s position and stuff and that he doesn’t even tell _him_ how he fully executes his serve. 

So how, and when, did Daichi get Oikawa to teach him how to jump serve?

* * *

  
  


“Hey, I did something wrong.”

“Give me your notebook. . .” Sigh “ _Tooru_. You added the x instead of subtracting it. You only made it positive when crossing over but there’s that negative in front of the parenthesis.”

“Thank you!”

It’s a Friday evening. Oikawa and Ushijima sit in a study room at the Sawamura household, their books along with Daichi’s scattered across the table. It’s been a while since they’d been over at each others’ houses. Ushijima had a game with the national U19 team in Seoul. Asahi, Suga, and Kiyoko had been coming over quite often. Oikawa had become more social. It was their normal pattern. 

The door slides open and Ms. Sawamura enters with a tray of snacks and drinks. 

“You boys must be hungry after so much studying! Keiji-kun, Kiyoomi-kun, and Tetsurou-kun aren’t coming over today?”

“No, Kuroo wasn’t free today so he couldn’t bring Keiji or Kiyoomi over.” Ms. Sawamura nods. 

The Sawamura household was made up only of Daichi and his mom, his little siblings and father having been killed in a car accident the month before he started junior high. He couldn’t keep any secrets from her. When it was just him, Kuroo, and Oikawa as the main trio with Ushijima trying to balance out his life while helping behind the scenes. It was Daichi’s mom who patched them up even though she didn’t have any quirks or powers. She had been wary of what they were doing at first but eventually decided that they would only continue what they’re doing. The least she could do was support them. 

“Milk bread! Okaa-san, what did Daichi do to deserve someone like you?” Ms. Sawamura chuckles. 

“Daichi, keep control of your friend. Will you two be staying for dinner?”

“That would be greatly appreciated.” Ushijima says. 

“Good. I made hayashi rice. Think of it as a thank you for bringing my vegetable garden back to life.” Ushijima brightens, his eyes lighting up to something akin to Hinata’s gaze when he sees a volleyball. The door slides close and the three boys start digging into the snacks. There are eight taiyaki filled with custard cream so it’s a race to see who won’t get a third, which ends up being Oikawa. Ushijima’s laugh is a low rumble and Daichi’s is loud and free as Oikawa pouts, clutching the milk bread close to him while sipping on a juice box. 

“I think we did enough homework” Daichi says. “We can finish the rest at Kiyoomi’s tomorrow.” Oikawa perks ups. 

“Omi! Didn’t he finally get the number of that setter who annoys him but he’s actually crushing hard on?” Daichi nods. “Ooh. We’ll have to be careful. I’m pretty sure the guy’s brother than teleport. Not as well as Iwa-chan, though, but we can still be surprised… Iwa-chan.” He sighs. 

“Tooru, perhaps you should deal with your own feelings towards Iwaizumi before becoming concerned about Kiyoomi’s.” Oikawa gasps. 

“Mean, Wakatoshi!” 

Daichi rolls his eyes. “And people think you guys don’t get along. Do you want to make more taiyaki? My mom printed out some different filling recipes.” The three pack up their stuff, Oikawa and Ushijima moving their backpacks to the living room. Daichi tells his mom what they’re doing and she laughs, ruffling his hair while saying how they always end up doing something other than studying in the end. 

They take over the central island, taiyaki pan plugged in. It shows how many times they’ve been over when Ushijima and Oikawa read the ingredients for the fillings they choose to make, finding ingredients around the kitchen on the first try. The room gets crowded with three above average teens and a mom, the place filling with the smell of rice and spices and vanilla. 

After twenty minutes, three different kinds of filling are made, two sweet, one savory. They get started on the batter and Daichi ends up getting flower and custard on his face, neck, and hair, Oikawa turning into a hummingbird and flying above the fridge before Ushijima could get more batter stuck in his hair. Oikawa turned back into a human while sitting on the fridge, groaning about his precious beautiful locks of hair. He takes the batter out of his hair and chucks it back at Ushijima. 

There’s a knock on the door and Daichi laughs. 

“I’m going to scare the delivery man looking like this!” There’s a chorus of laughs. He wipes his hands on the apron. He’ll have to sweep later, though. And mop. 

He thinks about what he ordered. He doesn’t think he got anything recently, but his mom loves to cook and spoil his friends with gifts. It’s either going to be something strange she found online to give to the next person who comes over or it’s a cookbook. He hopes it’s the latter: it’s nice having different meals for dinner everyday. 

He runs his fingers through his hair and they come away dark, warm, and sticky. _Chocolate_. That weird pale brown hazelnut chocolate that Ushijima is strangely fond of, to be exact.

There’s another knock on the door and he grumbles, opening the door. 

“Daichi, what the hell?” Daichi blinks. Standing in front of him is a very confused looking Suga and Kageyama. 

“Oh. SUGA and KAGEYAMA!” He says, voice just a bit louder than usual. “Um, excuse the mess. I was cooking.” He quickly searches with his mind, finding Oikawa. 

_TOORU_

_Don’t worry, I quickly put glamors on my back and Toshi’s. And Ushijima has been invisibled._

“So why are you two here?” He asks, closing the door. “I didn’t get a text or anything.” Suga shrugs, smiling. 

“I saw the bike in your yard. I was wondering who you had over. Kageyama also had a question about you jump se-”

“How did you learn it where did you learn it did you learn it from Oikawa? Then how did you get him to teach it and why did he teach you and how did you meet him because I’ve been trying to learn that serve but he never taught me but maybe he taught you unless you did the same thing as me and pulled off a lot of all nighters to try and mimic his jump serve but I could never get the hand motion right so maybe you could tell me how you learned that serve or maybe teach me how to do it.” 

Daichi blinks. Kageyama doesn’t even look out of breath. Scratch that, he’s surprised he even understood his rambling. 

_Kageyama figured out that I might know you._

_NO! NOT TOBIO-CHAN! Okay, you’re mom sent Ushiwaka out the window with a container of Hayashi rice and I managed to get his bag. I won’t be able to go anytime soon and that’s my bike out there._

_So you’re going to introduce yourself?_

_We’re going with the modified how-we-met story?_

_Yes! I’ve been waiting for this moment. I was_ born _for this!_

Feeling Oikawa wink through a thought is weird. He almost feels like winking. Only Oikawa can turn his own power against him. 

Daichi eyes Suga and Kageyama. Both of them are dressed casually. This wasn’t a surprise visit. It was planned. The bicycle and timing just happened to be coincidence. 

“Taiyaki?” Daichi offers. “We’re making some. That;s why I’m such a mess” he chuckles. “Filling.” There are footsteps and Oikawa peeks around the corner, part of his hair in a cowlick thanks to the batter, one cheek covered with smeared flower, nose covered with chocolate. 

“Ya hoo Tobio-chan, Refreshing-kun” Oikawa waves with a charming smile. “Dai-chan, I put the first batch in. Okaa-san’s wondering if they’ll be staying for dinner.” Suga and Kageyama blink. They look so confused. Oikawa disappears into the 

“My mom made Hayashi rice” Daichi says, keeping calm. 

“You seem very calm about this” Suga says. “Are you two dating?” Daichi chokes. 

“No, absolutely not” he says. “And you’d never want to if you hear how much he chants about _Iwa-chan_.” Kageyama looks uncomfortable, looking around Daichi’s house both curiously and awkwardly. 

“Koushi-kun!” Daichi’s mom says. “You haven’t been over for a while. It’s been a little over four days.” The table is already set. Oikawa comes with four freshly made taiyaki, still smiling. 

“So you _did_ teach Daichi-san your jump serve” Kageyama resolutes. Oikawa blinks. And then he smiles. 

“Dai-chan, you finally used it!? Did you have a practice match or something?” Daichi shakes his head. 

“It was yesterday. It was a successful jump serve for two pork buns. I should of guessed Kageyama would of been able to tell it was yours.” He spoons a large serving of rice onto his plate and an equally large serving of the sauce and meat. Kageyama still looks so confused. Daichi would of been confused and overwhelmed if he was suddenly in his senpai’s house and was suddenly having dinner with him. 

“So how did you two meet?” Suga asks. Daichi notices that his mom has conveniently not sat down for dinner yet. 

“Right before graduating from middle school” Oikawa says. “We met at a gym. I needed someone to practice my serves against and Daichi’s receives were surprisingly good. Although, with those thi-”

“Stop flirting, you almost have a boyfriend and we have a first year at the table.” 

“But it’s nothing Tobio-chan hasn’t heard before!” Kageyama quietly turns red and continues to look only at his food, chopsticks flying back and forth between his mouth and the plate. 

“Tooru” Daichi sighs. 

“So a little over two years you’ve known each other? And you never told me?” Suga says, looking at Daichi, gaze scary. Oikawa snickers. Daichi sinks in his seat. 

“Well, um, uh, yes?” Suga’s eyes grow larger making his face look creepier. Little tendrils of pinkish red float from his fingers like whisps of smoke. “Okay, I’m sorry Suga! I just thought it would be fun, seeing how you would um react, to, uh, my other friends- _friend_.” His face turns red but at least Suga isn’t slowly loosing control of his power. Suga gives him a curt nod. 

“Good. Now pass me one of the taiyaki as reparation.”

“Savory or sweet?”

“What do you think? Sweet.”

* * *

**Miyagi** **3 vs. Tokyo 3**

**[Friday 23:53]**

**Dai: Sugawara and Kageyama discovered that Tooru and I know each other**

**Omi: karasunos setters?**

**Tetsu: ? What ?**

**Ruru: Miyagi trio homework meet up**

**Ruru: btw okaa-san was wondering where u and Keiji were. She made hayashi and we made taiyaki ( ;**

**Tetsu: NOOOOOOOOO I LOVE TAYASHI**

**Dai: We saved some. Don’t worry. My mom missed you three. You can pop by tonight and have some.**

**Toshi: Sugawara and Kageyama remained for the duration of dinner? What did you do?**

**Dai: We just ate, talked a bit, and then they left. Kageyama like the filling you made.**

**Toshi: Oh. I still don’t really like him though.**

**Ruru: we know. baseless confidence yata yata yata**

**Omi: ive been wanting to meet someone who wakatoshi disapproves of**

**Ji: I apologize for my tardiness**

**Tetsu: AKAAAAAAAAAAAAHI**

**Ji: Kuroo, will you bring me some tayashi?**

**Ruru: we made red bean, vanilla, and hazelnut chocolate caramel.**

**Ji: all of them seem delicious. One each?**

**Dai: We made a lot. I’ll pack each of you two per flavor.**

**Dai: You want only the vanilla one, right Kiyoomi?**

**Omi: yes please, thank you daichi**

**Tetsu: please marry me Sawamura**

**Dai: No fraternization**

**Tetsu: D:**

**Toshi: I have an invitation for all of you.**

**Tetsu: ?**

**Toshi: Come to Shiratorizawa.**

**Ruru: STILL NO TOSHI WE MAY BE FRIENDS BUT NO**

**Toshi: I didn’t mean permanently, but only a week.**

**Toshi: [camp.pdf]**

**Toshi: One school week at Shiratorizawa for educational purposes. Although, you will be allowed to practice with our team. And I will be able to take you horseback riding. We have a very nice trail since we have a forest.**

**Dai: So you’re going to make us wish we came to Shiratorizawa?**

**Toshi: Perhaps**

**Omi: i will be able to come. My parents wouldnt know and I have nothing else to do.**

**Tetsu: I love you Toshi. One week in Miyagi! With you guys! And NO MOM! OIGNOFHNODFHNOIDOI**

**Tetsu: gonna miss the team though**

**Ruru: :’(**

**Ji: Is it free?**

**Omi: they are also having second years? Not just third years?**

**Toshi: It is free, it is for second and third years, Shiratorizawa is very clean and we have uniformly placed hand sanitizer stations, and I was able to persuade the science department to select you five.**

**Ruru: s o we have to go anyway**

**Toshi: the formal invitation should come in your mail by Sunday.**

**Ruru: Of** **_course_ ** **it’s science related. . .You forced my hand. How can I deny?**

**Tetsu: Ruru. . .**

**Tetsu: There’s volleyball**

**Tetsu: And dorms**

**Tetsu: No parents**

**Tetsu: And horses**

**Ji: I prefer birds but horses are fine as well**

**Omi: horses are tolerable and at least the outfits cover all skin**

**Toshi: Uniform fittings and the school tour will be next Friday. You’re teachers will be alerted of your absence and you will be hopefully excused from any assignments for that week.**

**Ruru: My team is going to freak**

**Ji: Bokuto-san may try and kidnap me. . .I will try my best to make it to Miyagi. Uniform fitting. . .next Friday. But the week begins on Monday?**

**Dai: You and Kiyoomi can stay at my place for two days.**

**Tetsu: . . .**

**Dai: You too Kuroo although you can travel back to your house or Oikawa can volunteer to home you.**

**Ruru: But my fam doesn’t know about US!!!!!!!!!**

**Dai: I’m rolling my eyes. Really, I am.**

**Omi: can i come to your weekend practice? I want to meet your team**

**Ji: I want to see how much Tsukishima-kun and Hinata-kun have improved**

**Toshi: I hope we can show the pretense of “developing a friendship” while you are at Shiratorizawa so I do not have to hide my phone from my team.**

**Dai: They don’t know you know me?**

**Toshi: They know I am friends with a Daichi, although they are unaware that you are Karasuno’s captain or even go to Karasuno. They also know I am friends with Kiyoomi.**

**Dai: Awesome. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.**

**Dai: Kiyoomi, being a number one ace most of my team probably heard of you already. You can be my cousin who is staying over because of the Shiratorizawa thing.**

**Ruru: Shiratorizawa. . .ugh**

**Ruru: Didn’t Tobio-chan try to get into Shiratorizawa? How are you going to tell your team, Dai-chan? I’m just going to send the team chat a message and then put them on silent :D**

**Dai: I think I’ll do that too.**

**Dai: Good night.**

**Ji: Goodnight**

**Omi: goodnight**

**Tetsu: NIGHT**

**Toshi: I hope all of you get a good night’s rest**

**Ruru: Goodnight <3**

* * *

**THE C** **ROWS**

**[Saturday 2:02]**

**Daichi: None of you better reply to this right after I text or else I will know that you were awake at two in the morning when we have practice at eight.**

**Daichi: Anyway, I won’t be coming to school on Friday because I have to go for a uniform fitting, school tour, and I have to pick up my cousin. I will be able to come for evening and weekend practice.**

**Daichi: I also won’t be at school starting not this week but the week after that. I’m going to Shiratorizawa. Goodbye.**

**Daichi: And goodmorning for when you see this!**

**[Saturday 6:42]**

**Nishinoya: Wait**

**Tanaka: what the hec**

**Nishinoya: DAICHI SAN NO WHAT THE HECK WHAT R U**

**Tanaka: REPLY TO US U COWARD**

**Suga: I wake up and you guys are spamming**

**Suga: why was Daichi awake at 2 in the morning?**

**Suga: oh**

**Nishinoya: does he need to get reddy for a world of hurt?**

**Suga: oh yes he does**

**Kageyama: is it because of his jump serve? Is that why i didn’t make it into shiratorizawa? Bc Oikawa-senpai didnt teach me his jump serve?**

**Hinata: JAPAN**

**Hinata: HES STEALING OUT CAPTINA**

**Asahi: You all should calm down. Daichi probably has a reasonable explanation.**

**Nishinoya: ASAHI! YOU HAVE CLAWS! GO AND KILL USHIWAKA FOR US. WAIT! ILL JUST RUN OVER TO SHIRATORIZAWA**

**Kiyoko: Please don’t, Nishinoya-kun**

**Nishinoya: Okay Kiyoko-san! <3**

* * *

**Recipient: Daichi**

**[Saturday 7:12]**

**Suga: Daichi, why the hell are you going to Shiratorizawa?**

**[Message could not be sent. The recipient has blocked you. Try again later.]**

**Suga: I was this close to killing you yesterday. I might actually today, regardless of you having no power.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *whispers* you should of come to Shiratorizawa  
> Also for the texts, Dai = Daichi; Ruru = Oikawa; Ji = Akaashi; Toshi = Ushijima; Tetsu = Kuroo; Omi = Sakusa. For the groupchats between those six, those nicknames will be used (for identity protection reasons, according to Oikawa who came up with them)  
> [1] Why is Sakusa here? Well, I want SakuAtsu to eventually become a thing. And Sakusa is basically a sixth Horseman which nobody knows about because he's a behind-the-scenes guy, like the guy behind the computer, the Merlin to Arthur, the Ned to Spiderman (idk I don't really like Ned because Harry Osborn is a much better BFF). Sakusa will get a larger role besides being their informant, nurse(?), he's basically a germaphobic sassier Alfred, uh, what else. . he's going to pretend to be Daichi's cousin (lol imagine Hinata seeing his spike with the weird wrist thingie) and he's Akaashi's second-year buddy in the team. All in all, it's hard to explain Sakusa's role, but he's a Horseman. Just remember that when you wonder "why did Rohan put Sakusa in here?"
> 
> Horsemen/"Villains":  
>  Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
>  Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
>  Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
>  Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
>  Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation  
> Behind-the-scene-Horsemen:  
>  Sakusa - can see and is aware of the smallest details; works as their informant and his place is basically their safe-house  
>  Sukehiro-sama - underground doctor and healer
> 
> Heroes  
>  Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
>  Iwaizumi / Moteo - teleportation via touch (learning to make things teleport without touching)  
>  Kenma / Slink - invisibility  
>  Lev / Geroy(герой) - elastic limbs  
>  Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers  
>  Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
>  Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
>  Yaku / Healer - can heal someone and feel their emotions, mood, power when healing
> 
> "Hero allies"  
>  Asahi - retractable forarm length metal claws, enhanced hearing+smell, superfast healing factor (wolverine basically)  
>  Atsumu - persuasion/manipulation (limited mind control), surface feelings empath, enhanced stealth  
>  Kiyoko - hydrokinesis  
>  Osamu - Teleportation (less powerful than Iwa)  
> Quirks:  
>  Ennoshita - empath and lie-detector via touch


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The days that lead to Friday  
> A little bit of foreshadowing

_ Sunday. . . _

Sunday has the six of them in a private room at a fancy cultural fusion restaurant about three kilometers away from the National Diet Building, dressed formally in two-piece suits. Kuroo had told his mother that he wanted to take some friends out. Happy that her son was going to “hang out” with someone other than Kenma, as well as happy that one of them is a Sakusa, she had happily reserved a private room at one of the best restaurants in Tokyo with no expense since it was one of the many businesses that the branch of the company she heads owns. 

The best thing is that it’s private. The walls are thick, the doors are sealed, and the place is infamous for rumors chefs who are actually yakuza leaders on the side who just have a passion for good food and cooking. Daichi confirmed for them that the rumors were true and it’s come up once on accident (Kuroo) with the friendly chefs, but all that happened was that they smiles, said yes, and from then on, the random yakuza members would say hi to them on the streets and teach them self defense, which was pretty useful when they’re in an environment where using their powers will do more harm and little good .

“My team is getting suspicious of me” Kuroo says, leaning forward to pick a piece of grilled beef. “It’s kind of creepy, actually, because Kenma’s been stalking me.” Then he looks up and points at Oikawa. “And  _ you _ . The heck is going on with you and Iwaizumi?”

Oikawa shrugs, chewing on some noodles before swallowing. “He admitted that he loves me.” Sakusa raises an eyebrow. Kuroo brightens and gets up, leaning over the table and holding his hand out for Oikawa to shake. 

“Good job, bro!” He says with a laugh. “Good luck getting a guy who can  _ teleport  _ off your trail!” 

“I know!” Oikawa whines. “I love him, and it was  _ perfect _ . He just kept on having us fall-”

“Can’t you fly?” Daichi deadpans but there’s a big smile on his face. 

“Yeah, but this is different!” Oikawa protests. “And I couldn’t say ‘I don’t love you’ because I really do love him and he knew that I loved him and he didn’t even ask for anything else. We just… hugged.” He lets out a loud sigh and rests his head on Akaashi’s shoulder. The teen, long used to this, reaches a hand up and pats Oikawa’s head. 

“On another note, my team is planning to murder me” Daichi says. “I waited until two to send the message. I’m proud that none of them woke up. And then I went ahead and had my mom text coach that I was sick so I couldn’t come. And Koushi and Kageyama know me and Tooru.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“At least we had an excuse to make extra taiyaki?” Kuroo offers, slinging an arm around Daichi. Out of all of them, he probably has it the hardest. It’s just him and his mom and because his mom cares about him a lot and knows what he does, he can’t be more carefully but there’s one more person who has to keep his secret. And half of his friends (volleyball team) are members of the Association and everyone else has powers. 

“It was good taiyaki” Sakusa says “I still have some. I was able to get more information on the people on our hit list. I think the Association is catching onto the fact that they might have a mole- that’s how we’re getting our information.” Ushijima frowns. 

“We leave no trails. It is probably because of something else.” Ushijima states. 

“I also thought so” Sakusa says. “Anyway, I will be going with my parents to the Association building. They’re meeting with some delegates from the the American alternative of the Association.”

“Ugh, Americans” Oikawa crinkles his nose. “Remember that one guy? Who got me stabbed? I hate that guy.”

“So do we” Kuroo says. 

“My english is horrible” Sakusa says. “Tooru, can you switch with me again?” Oikawa nods. They’ve done this quite often, and it’s one of the ways they’ve been gaining a lot of information. Sakusa would go into the Association with his parents while Oikawa would turn into an insect. Sakusa would excuse himself to the bathroom, where Kuroo would be waiting to transport him out of the building. Oikawa would turn into a perfect copy of Sakusa and would exit and join the Sakusas for the meeting. Daichi would be outside the building, close by, and would constantly be mentally linked with Oikawa and write down any information Oikawa tells him might be important. 

“Can we get some more of those garlic bread balls?” Daichi asks. Kuroo presses a button on the table. A few seconds later, the door opens and a waiter enters. 

“The garlic bread ball things, please” Kuroo requests “and- desert, guys?” They nod. “After you bring the garlic bread, wait maybe, like, ten minutes, then get us the beignets with chocolate sauce. Also, gelato. I’ll have dark chocolate” everyone else lists their flavor, Ushijima asking for sorbet rather than gelato. The waiter nods and bows before heading back out again. They wait for the door to close completely before they continue talking. 

Their main topic of conversation is what they’re going to do at Shiratorizawa. There’s the mandatory educational aspect, volleyball to keep in shape and spend time with each other, and free-time during the day can be used to hangout. At night they will gather information on the people on their “hit list” in case the possibility of the Association increasing security becomes a reality. 

The garlic bread comes and the conversation starts to turn more friendly. By the time gelato comes, they’re having a discussion about volleyball. And with volleyball comes Sakusa having to pretend to be Daichi’s cousin which he conveniently hasn’t told anyone about yet because yeah, it’s perfectly normal to not tell your volleyball loving teammates and friends that your “cousin” is the number one ace in the whole country. Oikawa tries messing with them by casting illusions on the food and items on the table. He gets up to grab an extra portion of icecream and when he moves to sit down, he falls on the ground, chair having been pulled away by one of Ushijima’s vines. And when he goes to move it back into place, Daichi just using his telekinesis to move it a little further.

Kuroo is trying to get Akaashi to actually laugh rather than simply hide his smile behind his hand. Sakusa just pulls up his mask Kuroo’s attention could move onto him. Daichi slips out his phone and sees the texts that line the lock screen. Twenty-two texts from individual people and almost a hundred from the Karasuno group chat. He looks up and sees his friends, the only people he can trust with this part of his life, and feels a pang of sadness. Then he looks back down at his phone and feels guilt. 

“What are you thinking about?” Daichi turns his head and looks at Sakusa. 

“Guilt” he says. Sakusa nods. 

“I understand.” He shifts in his seat. “If we are able to gather a sufficient amount of information, and with the meeting today, you may not have to do this for much longer.” Daichi swallows and nods. Because they’re getting really serious about what they’re doing, making so much progress. 

But so are the heroes. 

Almost every time they do something big, Bokuto is there, intent on taking down Akaashi in their mid-air battles. He remembers the injuries Akaashi carried and the tears that fell the first time he was injured by the golden eyed ace. How Ushijima’s gaze is sad when he gets texts from his friends at Shiratorizawa, when he picks up a call from Goshiki or Tendou and the rest of them can hear the other’s voice even from a distance. He remembers nights of Kuroo appearing in his room in the middle of the night because of how distant he feels from his family and friends, how giving them a small portion of the truth makes everything so much more harder. How when Sakusa first joined them he’d been serious and professional but over the months he became friendlier and considerate, pushing aside his own personal problems to help them out. 

He thinks of his own team, looking at him with so much trust. That they don’t discriminate because he’s the only one on the team without a power or quirk. How they come to  _ him _ when they have problems with their life or need help with their powers. How he and Noya would work together on receives last year, with Noya chucking the ball over the net and quickly running to the other side to receive it. Kiyoko sending small cold balls of water at the back of his head when he’s distracted. How Asahi let him use metal paint on his claws in their first year because it would never poison him and he wanted to see how they’d look orange. It looked bad. The paint wore off after a month. 

The latest text on the groupchat was about how Hinata accidentally caused a drone that was flying in the air to blow up. He thumbs out a short message:

**Hinata, you should be more careful.**

Then he presses send.

* * *

  
  


_ Monday. . . _

“Yoo hoo, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa exclaims, bounding down the street to catch up to his best friend/childhood friend/love/boyfriend? Just when Oikawa is about to reach him, he suddenly appear a few meters down the sidewalk, staring at a shocked Oikawa before laughing, doubling over with his arms wrapped around his midsection. Oikawa pouts and quickly catches up to the older boy. 

Iwaizumi clears his truth and stands straight and Oikawa can’t help but think that even in his practice clothes he still manages to look so handsome. 

“Anway, I have to tell you something.” Oikawa says, trying to act calm. His “villain” name is literally based off of a Norse god of mischief and lies and stuff. He has been on the same street as Iwaizumi, both of them suited up and on opposite sides, and he’d be calm them. 

How is  _ one sentence  _ so hard to say?

“Well, say it. I don’t have forever.” Oikawa has to force himself to not pull in his lower lip as he walks side by side with Iwaizumi. One would think that it was Oikawa who’d have to slow down to keep up with his best friend but it’s actually the other way around. And Iwaizumi always slows down for Oikawa, making sure he’s never too far. 

“I’m going to Shiratorizawa.” Iwaizumi stops. Turns around. And grabs the front of Oikawa’s shirt. 

“The  _ hell  _ do you mean by you’re going to Shittytorizawa!?” Iwaizumi seethes. Oikawa waves his hands in front of his face. 

“Iwa-chan, Iwa-chan, love of my life, it’s only for a week! I was invited for some smancy-schmancy science education thingie they’re having.” He puts his hands on Iwaizumi’s tense shoulders. “Imagine: I can bring back all of their secrets, or I can sabotage them!” He imagines replacing Ushijima’s shampoo with hair dye. But he knows it won’t be a reality because Kuroo would beat him to it. And only Kuroo would be able to sneak into his stuff. Iwaizumi continues to stare at him. “Iwa-chan?” 

“You called me the love of your life.” With a small sigh, Iwaizumi’s face softens. “Well, I’m happy you got invited. Actually, Nishinoya texted the chat that Shiratorizawa is kidnapping Sawamura. Same thing?” 

Oikawa pretends to let out a gasp. He lays out the trap in his words. 

“Oh, yeah! He sent me this weird text saying how he’s siding with the enemy but I didn’t really understand it because I barely even know the guy and it was weird. I get it now!” Iwaizumi tutts. 

“Stupidkawa. Maybe you should hang out with Sawamura while you’re there. You can bond over teammates with annoying powers.”

Oikawa lets out a hum. “Maybe I will hang out with Reliable-kun” he muses. “It’s not like I’m going to go to Ushiwaka.”

“You better not” Iwaizumi snorts. “I swear, if the two of you somehow don’t cause I fire or something, I’ll”

“I’ll what, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa bats his eyelashes, bending down and stuffing his hands in his shorts pocket, smirking at him. “What will you do, Iwa-chan?”

“I’ll buy you a single pack of milk bread.” Oikawa covers his heart with his hands. 

“I promise you Iwa-chan, in the name of milk bread, I won’t set Shiratorizawa on fire no matter how much they deserve it.”

“Good.” Iwaizumi grunts, and then snatches one of Oikawa’s hands from his chest. He doesn’t comment on it. 

* * *

_ Wednesday. . . _

The current spot he’s at is the roof. No one usually comes up here ever since it was used by a yakuza sniper for a nest for about three minutes three weeks ago. People thought that murders would suddenly happen up there or something. Teachers didn’t even check to see if anyone was up there anymore. 

Bokuto had been fine that morning. He had been perfectly fine with Akaashi going to Shiratorizawa, boasting about it, actually, saying how smart his Akaashi is.  _ His _ . Akaashi had held in the blush as usual but he was left with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside of him all. Bokuto had actually played better after Akaashi told the team of his future absence. But now it’s lunch and Bokuto hadn’t hunted him down in his classroom. He went to his classroom only to see the boy was gone, his bento left at his desk. Akaashi had taken it and set out to find him. 

And here he is, on the roof. 

Bokuto doesn’t often show his wings to Akaashi. On very stressful days which only happen less than five times a year, Bokuto would let Akaashi stroke and straighten his feathers, gently massaging where they connect with his back. The last time has been the end of his first year and Bokuto’s second, after he’d been given the title of captain. After the celebration he had suddenly realized what expectations and pressures were suddenly put on him with the title on his shoulders. It took over an hour for Akaashi to calm him down. And all of those times, even that first time, had been in the cover of night, world lit only by moonlight. 

Bokuto is, surprisingly, a private hero. The rest of their team knows he’s a hero, of course, and the only other person in the Fukurodani boys’ volleyball club who’s in the association is actually their manager, Kaori. She doesn’t know what his power is or what his hero name is. 

Akaashi has encountered Bokuto’s hero persona, Owlman, numerous times. His outfit wasn’t flashy. He’d wear his hair down, upper half of his face covered by a gold mask that matched his eyes. His suit, just like all other superhero suits, was protective, durable, and stuck against his body. It was gold and white, sleeves short and gold gauntlets on his forearms, hands covered with fingerless gloves that allows his claws to comfortably form. His boots, cloth-based for maneuverability, had little slits at the toes to allow his toes to go clawed and painfully kick at people. It’d be easy to identify him as Bokuto Koutarou because his voice was the same, his eyes were uncovered, his personality was the same, but it was probably the fact his hair was always worn down and people thought those wings would be unhideable that protected his identity. Those large, beautiful wings that matched his hair. 

So, technically, he has seen Bokuto’s wings a lot but his mind tells him those are  _ Owlman’s  _ wings, even though him and Bokuto are one-and-the-same. His breath always hitches and his heart pounds faster during those tense, stressed moments of the night. 

With all of that information in mind, the current situation is new and unnerving. 

Bokuto sits in the sunlight, somewhere between the entrance to the stairwell and the edge. The sound of the air conditioners are louder, the machines placed in a row on the other side of the roof. His shirt, blazer, and tie form a trail to where he sits. He’s hunched forward, legs folded. His wings are limp on the ground, stretched and weighing on the ground behind him. Akaashi closes the door as gently as he can, picking up articles of clothing as he approaches. 

It’s his first time seeing them out during the day. Feathers are bent from having been folded for so long. They shine in the sun and Bokuto is trembling, fingers clawed and drawing beads of blood from where they harshly grip his arms. 

“Bokuto-san” he softly says, setting down Bokuto’s clothes so he can better balance his own bento and Bokuto’s. The ace’s hair is in half-state of disarray, locks of hair falling from their gravity-defying position to splay across his face. He sits down besides him, putting the bentos down in front of him so that he can gently take the hand off the arm closest to him. Bokuto is compliant, not saying anything as he also pulls down his hand from his other arm. Taking a handkerchief out of his pocket, he dabs the blood off of muscled arms. When he’s done, he sets Bokuto’s bento into his lap, sitting down in front of his captain. 

“Will you tell me what’s wrong?” Akaashi asks. Bokuto’s breath shudders and he looks down, hair hiding his gaze. Akaashi, for once, doesn’t have to actively try and not look at Bokuto’s body because he’s just concerned with finding out what’s wrong. “It’s not everyday I find you on the roof. Or with your wings out. In broad daylight.”

“I” Bokuto’s voice is quiet. “I’m going to leave the Association, after I graduate.” Akaashi furrows his brow. That’s not all. This is just another flash of dejection- it’s something else. And it’s not because of something like leaving the Association. He buries how happy he is with the fact because a lot can happen by the time school ends. False hope is a dangerous thing.

“Why?” Akaashi gently prods, reaching a hand out to brush the hair out of Bokuto’s eyes before resting his hand against his cheek. As expected, there are dried tear tracks on his face. He leans into Akaashi’s touch. “You love the Association. I thought you would be a hero while playing professional.”

“I know” Bokuto sighs. “But. . .I’m not a hero for everyone. I’m going to help take down the Horsemen, I’m going to talk to Arashi about why he’s doing all of this. Then I’m going to leave that life behind me.” Akaashi’s hand slips from Bokuto’s face. Still not happy. He’s still hiding something and Bokuto isn’t going to be happy again until he talks about it. He takes one of Bokuto’s hands, holding it between his own. Claws have already referred back to normal fingers, blood specking his nails. 

“What else.”

“You’re leaving.”

“It’s only for a-”

“A week, yeah. But I won’t be able to protect you when you’re all the way in Miyagi. Yeah, I trust the guys there and Shiratorizawa has some heroes, but it’s going to be a week without you. And so many things can happy and I-I the Association.” Bokuto leans forward so that he’s resting his head on Akaashi’s shoulder. “I’m leaving because ever since I became more popular, since I became stronger and better, I haven’t been able to spend time with you outside of school and practice like we used to. 

“I don’t  _ love  _ being in the Association- there’s so much blood, Keiji. I’ve hurt so many people and taken so many from their family and I know that they’re bad guys but they’re human too, you know? And then I see the Horsemen, villains who can’t be taken down, and I realize that my life is becoming controlled by something I don’t want to take further. All I wanted to do was to be able to help people. But in the end I’m always hurting someone. And that includes you too.” Akaashi’s heart freezes. 

_ I’m always hurting someone. And that includes you too _ . 

“Bokuto-san” he says, holding his hand tighter. “You aren’t hurting me.”

“You’re lying” Bokuto says. “W-we aren’t as close anymore. You always ask about me when I get back from missions. When I get hurt you always worry about me and you’re the one who’s always comforting me but I can never do the same for you and I want to be able to be there for you. I don’t want anything distracting me from loosing touch with you.Even now I must of worried you.” Akaashi finds that his own eyes have become wet. All of it is true. He’s even been feeling a sort of looseness between him and Bokuto. The closeness they had when he was a third yeah and then a first year faded and dusty. He wraps his arms around Bokuto and the other pulls him forward so that he’s basically sitting in his lap, bento pushed to the side. They rest their heads on each other, Akaashi’s arms positioned below where wings fuse with back and watches as his wings move, wrapping around the two, separating them from the rest of the world. 

“I care for you a lot, Koutarou” Akaashi says. 

“I care for you a lot too, Keiji. I’m sorry you had to deal with me again. You leaving for Shiratorizawa, it just had me thinking a lot. You better call every day and tell me what’s going on up there. Kuroo texted me before lunch and told me he’s going too. So is Sawamura. You’re going to have a blast without me being there to hold you bamphm.” Akaashi pulls away, thus leaning more into the feathers behind him. His hand covers Bokuto’s mouth and he stares down at the elder, cool blue eyes meeting bright gold. 

“I will try to enjoy myself” Akaashi says “But I will be calling in the morning, during lunch, before practice, and before going to bed to talk with you. I expect you to text me like you usually do, with pictures of anything that interests you, quoting what others said, strange things that happened, anything that crosses your mind and you usually text me in the middle of class.” He doesn’t know if it’s because of the shadows cast from his own wings or because of some lighting illusion, but Bokuto’s eyes seem to grow brighter, like two stars. 

“Make me get called out by a teacher for being on my phone too much. Make Kuroo-san question what you could be texting me about. Make my every waking thought be about what ridiculous thing you’re going to text me text. Make me feel underwhelmed by Shiratorizawa’s volleyball club. Make me miss you. Because if you don’t do this, then you  _ will  _ hurt me.”

Bokuto’s golden eyes are  _ burning _ , blazing like the fire that matches his personality. Akaashi fills himself not to burn, ducking his head down to hide the blush that he knows is branding his emotions across his face. Bokuto reaches a hand up and gently pushes Akaashi’s hand aside, his face bright red. 

“Th-th-there’s a, uh, hero who-who knows who I, um, am?” Akaashi lets out a small laugh, trying to muffle it with his hands. “Hey, I’m talking!” Flustered. Only Bokuto. 

“It’s just” he drowns in laughter, clawing to drag a breath into his lungs “You never stutter so much.” Bokuto pouts so Akaashi motions for him to go on. “You said a hero who knows who you are?” Bokuto nods. 

“Yeah yeah! His names Iwaizumi!”

_ Iwaizumi _ . 

This world. . .it really is quite small. 

“And he, uh, toldmethathetookhisbestfriendflyingbecausehecanteleportandcanItakeyouflyingtopleaseo?” For not the first time in his lift, Akaashi wishes that the wind he can control also applies to the speed of the wind that exits Bokuto’s mouth. All he caught was “told” and “flying” and “please”. 

“Bokuto-san, can you repeat that?” His heart thumps. 

“Um, uh. Iwaizumi can teleport” Bokuto says “And he can do this cool thing where he teleports to the sky and freefall and ten teleport up again. And he took his best friend who’s normal like you- not that it’s bad or anything!” Again with that adorable flustered look. “So basically he took his friend flying and I want to do the same.”

Bokuto now realizes that he’s in the same position as Oikawa had been in a few days ago. Oikawa had said that it felt different, so new, because he wasn’t the one flying. That he had to put all of his trust into Iwaizumi. And it had been wonderful. 

“Not right now” Akaashi says. Disappointment floods his gut. “You have to eat and you’re in your school uniform.” And then he adds, as if it were an afterthought “You’re also half naked.” Bokuto blinks. 

“But we have, like, an hour until we even have to start heading back!” Bokuto whines. “And I keep this for emergencies!” He reaches into his pocket and Akaashi becomes a bit unbalanced and that’s when he realizes  _ Oh. I’m still kind of sitting in Bokuto-san’s lap _ . “Here it is!” And Bokuto ships out not the full superhero mask he uses but more like a gold domino mask. He puts it on, the material somehow sticking onto his face. Akaashi stands up and the wings unfurl around him, straightening out. Angelic. 

“You’re still half-naked” Akaashi tries. Bokuto blinks. 

“Oh, right!” And then picks his white collared shirt off the floor, only doing the two middle buttons before holding a hand out to Akaashi. “All done now. Wanna go now?” Akaashi purses his lips. The wind picks up just a little bit. 

“Don’t let go of me” he takes his hand. 

“That sounds good. I’ll never let go of you, ever!” Bokuto brightly says, pulling Akaashi to his chest, wrapping his arms around him and lifting him off the ground. Akaashi quickly raises his legs to wrap around his waist, arms slinging around his neck. The collar of his shirt smells faintly of vanilla. 

They end up being late too class and not having eating anything out of their bentos. 

* * *

_ Thursday. . . _

“So Iwaizumi told me Oikawa is also going, and Iwaizumi got from Bokuto that Kuroo and Akaashi are going, and you’re probably going to bump into Ushiwaka at some point. It’s not too late to pull out.” Daichi gives up on trying to pay attention to his english homework, looking up to give Koushi a withering Look. 

“My mental health will survive” he says. “And tomorrow is only the uniform fitting.”

“You’re going to have a Shiratorizawa uniform for the rest of your life!” Koushi exclaims. “Make sure you’re wearing it when you come back with your cousin for practice- I wanna see how similar the two of you will look in white and purple. How do you guys think little-Sawamura is going to look like?” 

Asahi and Kiyoko look up from where they were poring over the math book stationed at the corner of the table between them. 

“He wouldn’t share too many features with Daichi” Kiyoko says before taking her pencil and circling something on her paper before passing it to Asahi. “This is where I think we messed up.” Asahi’s brow twitches and then his face goes sad. 

“I messed up” Asahi groans, burying his face in his hands. “I’m going to fail the test tomorrow!” Both Kiyoko and Koushi lean over to pat Asahi on the back, although the latter does it with an excessive amount of force. If Daichi hadn’t known what Koushi’s power was already, he would of thought it was superstrength. 

“Are you looking forward to going to Shiratorizawa? You never let us ask any questions!” Koushi pouts, giving up on Asahi to poke his friend’s arm. Daichi still remembers the time Koushi poked his arm only to whine about how not-squishy it is. It unnerved Daichi but the action seemed to have had no effect on Koushi. 

“Have you read on what you will be doing there?” Kiyoko asks. “Shiratorizawa is academically rigorous and it would be nice to see what sort of activities you’ll be participating in.”

Asahi lets out a gasp, straightening. “I remember when I went to tour their school a few years ago, they had  _ horses _ .” His gaze turns pleading and he clasps his hands in Daichi’s direction. “ _ Please _ take pictures of the horses!” Daichi hums. He’ll definitely be seeing the horses. 

“I’ll try” he says. Koushi snickers. 

“Daichi, you’ll have to sneak into the equestrian club.”

“You riding a horse” Kiyoko ponders. Daichi wonders why she looks like she’s putting so much thought into it. “Will you be able to get on?” Her gaze is innocent enough but the look in them matches Koushi’s, suspicions confirmed when her lips curve into a smile. Koushi and Asahi bend over, laughing. 

“Y-you just made f-f-fun of his height!” Koushi laughs. Daichi scowls, jabbing him in the side, but it has no effect on the grey-haired teen. 

“I’m above average!” Daichi defends. “And Kiyoko’s shorter than me!” But no one seems to be listening to him. 

“Maybe you should pay attention to your homework.” Kiyoko says. “You’re being unwise.” Daichi roll his eyes. 

“Homework homework” he grumbles. “I don’t see why I have to do this. Of course you had to volunteer to turn it in for me.” He looks at Asahi. The ace starts to sweat. 

“J-just wanted to help you out.” He says. Daichi wishes he had Kuroo’s power- then he could make himself look even more intimidating. 

Daichi’s mom chooses then to intervene with the offering of snacks and drink. Daichi grabs a juicebox and while he still looks at Asahi, he stabs the plastic straw through the insert, raising it to his mouth to start drinking. Never blinking. Never moving his gaze. Not smiling. Only sipping. Asahi gulps. 

“S-s-s-so Koushi” Asahi says, trying not to look at Daichi. He allows himself to grin, laughing at the other’s bothered face, shoulders relaxing at Daichi’s smile. 

* * *

  
  


_ Friday _ . . .

“And that concludes your tour of Shiratorizawa! Now please get acquainted with our student volunteer who picked to communicate with you five about any other questions you may have about our prestigious academy.” The classroom door closes behind them an the six stand silent and emotionless for the most part. It only lasts a few seconds before Oikawa wipes away the mild disgust on his face to point at Sakusa before laughing. 

“Purple is  _ not  _ your color!” The narrowing of his eyes tell them that he’s scowling behind the mask. Each of them also have a drawstring bag which holds a set of casual clothes (purple shorts, black t-shirt), the clothes they wore here, as well as papers about the next week. “You, on the other hand” Oikawa points at Daichi “Look as if you could be Wakatoshi’s cousin.” Daichi shrugs, hands tucked into pant pockets. 

“It’s comfortable” he says. “It’s been a while since I’ve last worn a suit.”

“Karasuno” Kuroo sighs, loosening his tie. “You spoiled children with your cool black gakuran.” 

“A cool black gakuran which got us the best libero in the prefecture.” Daichi reminds. “It’s strange seeing all of you except for Wakatoshi in Shiratorizawa’s uniform.”

“I think ‘Kaashi looks the next best.” Kuroo points out. Akaashi looks down at himself. 

Oikawa lets wistful sigh. “Keiji-kun is blessed to look good in  _ anything _ he wears.” Ushijima raises an eyebrow. 

“I think he uniform fits you very well, Tooru” Ushijima says. “You should of come to Shiratorizawa aft-”

“NOPE NU-UH NOT HEARING IT!” Oikawa interrupts, a thread of his magic appear to wrap around Ushijima’s head and cover his mouth, effectively muffling him 

“You were too late” Daichi deadpans. “He already said the words.” Oikawa groans and his magic fades, like whisps of colored smoke dispersing into the air. The brunette lets out a yelp when Kuroo whispers “you should of come to Shiratorizawa” into his ear. Oikawa turns around to have a go at him but Kuroo has already travelled through the shadows to hide behind Daichi, smirking at Oikawa. 

“I still do not understand the joke” Ushijima says with a frown. “All of you should of come to Shiratorizawa.”

“I am fine at Itachiyama, thank you very much” Sakusa says. “We did beat Shiratorizawa at the Spring Interhigh last year.”

“Let me remind you that we won that tournament” Akaashi says. 

“And Bo didn’t even go through a dejected mode!” Kuroo grins. Daichi raises an eyebrow and looks up at Kuroo who is now leaning on his shoulder from behind. 

“Nekoma didn’t even make it to Nationals then.” 

Kuroo withers. “Hey hey hey, not nice, Captain Crow. I could say the same about you guys except with every tournament.”

“You should say that to Tooru. Karasuno will be beating him in August.” Daichi continues before Oikawa could interject. “Wakatoshi, we will be able to see the horses, right? The third years really want pictures and they doubt I’ll be able to get on a horse.” A few bouts of laughter are stifled as coughs. 

“Sawamura, even ‘Kaashi and Sakusa are taller than you” he teases, wrapping his arms across Daichi’s chest. “That what makes you so adorable.”

“Get off me.” Daichi grunts, nudging Kuroo’s arms out with his telekinesis, ducking out of the middle blocker’s hold before he could try and get him again. Daichi brushes invisible dust off his suit. “Anyway, Kiyoomi, Keiji, we need to get walking.” Akaashi looks confused. 

“Me too?”

“Yeah. You said you wanted to see the team again. Wakatoshi, when do you think your coach will start considering Karasuno for a practice match?” 

“After he sees your skill on Monday practice, I am confident he will consider it. We used to have many practice matches with your school quite often when your coach’s grandfather was there.” 

“I can take you guys to Karasuno” Kuroo offers. “Walking in this heat is going to be horrible, you could get your suits dirty, and I’m pretty sure Sakusa won’t want to take the bus.” Sakusa glares at Kuroo. 

“Between letting you touch me and a bus” Sakusa hisses. 

“I have hand sanitizer” Akaashi says. “I can sanitize my hand and hold onto the lap of your jacket while Kuroo-san touches me. There are three of us after all.” Sakusa nods in agreement after a few seconds of thought. 

“Thank you for considering that.”

“No problem.”

“Now that you guys aren’t walking or taking a bus, we can talk for longer!” Oikawa beams. “So, Ushiwaka- it’s really fun pretending to hate you so how long do I have to do that for? Especially in front of your friends.” 

Daichi wonders if he really should of said no and spared his mental health. But he’s been gathering this group for almost three years. A middle blocker and a setter who never should of become friends in the first place because of how similar they are. A slightly dense but still caring spiker. Two second years who somehow put up with their elders’ immaturity while having their own way to get at each and every one of them. He smiles to himself, watching Sakusa take Ushijima’s side in some argument Oikawa started up. This is his team, his team which started with a walk to the Association and was built up through glances down the street, late-night phone calls, impromptu sleepovers, and hidden smiles during volleyball matches.

Ushijima takes his eyes from Oikawa for a moment and sees Daichi with a fond look on his face. Ushijima is a guy who has been often credited for being dense and straight-minde, getting straight to the point, but he realizes something completely unrelated to the conversation he’s having with Sakusa, Kuroo, and Oikawa:

There are six of them on one team. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just like Ushiwaka, it was only this chapter that I realized that just like in the sport the boys love so much, their team is also made up of six player. We got Akaashi, Kuroo, Oikawa, Sawamura, and Ushijima playing "offense" by being the ones who go into the field while Sakusa is sort of like the Horsemen's libero (imagine that haha) by being the defense they can fall back and rely on.
> 
> Horsemen/"Villains":  
> Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
> Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
> Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
> Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
> Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation  
> Behind-the-scene-Horsemen:  
> Sakusa - can see and is aware of the smallest details; works as their informant and his place is basically their safe-house  
> Sukehiro-sama - underground doctor and healer
> 
> Heroes  
> Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
> Iwaizumi / Moteo - teleportation via touch (learning to make things teleport without touching)  
> Kenma / Slink - invisibility  
> Lev / Geroy(герой) - elastic limbs  
> Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers  
> Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
> Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
> Yaku / Healer - can heal someone and feel their emotions, mood, power when healing
> 
> "Hero allies"  
> Asahi - retractable forarm length metal claws, enhanced hearing+smell, superfast healing factor (wolverine basically)  
> Kiyoko - hydrokinesis  
> Atsumu - persuasion/manipulation (limited mind control), surface feelings empath, enhanced stealth  
> Osamu - Teleportation (less powerful than Iwa)  
> Quirks:  
> Ennoshita - empath and lie-detector via touch


	6. Chapter 6

Kuroo drops them off at the base of the staircase to the clubrooms. Sakusa had changed out of Shiratorizawa’s uniform at Shiratorizawa due to fear of how contaminated Karasuno’s club room may be after hearing the horror stories of what sort of shenanigans their first and second years partake in.

“Why aren’t you changing yet?” Akaashi asks after changing in the clubroom. Sakusa lingers in the hall, staring beyond the rails at the rest of Karasuno’s campus. The school day is just about to close, students finishing up their cleaning duties. 

“Suga wants to see me in uniform.”

Sakusa lets out a snort. His hands are buried in the pockets of his Itachiyama Academy club jacket, duffle slung over his shoulder and Shiratorizawa drawstring carefully held. Knowing the second year, Daichi bets that the clothes in there are neatly folded and in the plastic wrapping they had took the uniforms out of for the fitting. 

“You shouldn’t let your team order you around like that.”

“It’s fine” Daichi says with a shrug. “It was funny seeing their reactions.” The bell rings and Daichi passes the keys to Akaashi. “That’s for the gym” he says, pointing to one of the three keys. “You two should start on stretches.” Daichi puts his hands on the railing, leaning forward to watch the two Tokyo second years walk down the stairs and to the gym. They look around as they go, clearly intrigued by how different Miyagi is in comparison to Tokyo. It’s also funny seeing the few students that walk by them cringe a little at Sakusa’s narrowed gaze and incredible height. 

“Daichi!” He hears a familiar voice call from the opposite direction. Akaashi and Sakusa slip into the gym just as Suga, Asahi, and Nishinoya round the corner. He turns his head and he waves at the three. 

“You guys are slow!” He shouts. Suga flips him a sign and he lets out a low whistle to himself. If only the first years knew this is how the real Sugawara Koushi is like, they would still love him because that’s how Suga works. You can’t just stop liking him. Daichi blames the magic. The silver-haired teen is apparently too lazy to just take the stairs, so he just jumps up to where Daichi is, creating solid translucent plates of the energy he controls to step on before swinging himself over the rail. Suga has done  _ much  _ dangerous things but Daichi still sets his face into what he hopes is his best disapproving look. 

It backfires. 

“Oh my gods” Suga wheezes, pointing at Daichi. “You look like a mini Ushijima.” Daichi rolls his eyes and opens the club room door. “Wait, wait! Let me take a picture at least.” Suga whines, already pulling his phone out of his back pocket, swiping to access the camera. “Say Shiratorizawa~ !”

“Shiratorizawa” Daichi deadpans. 

“Hey, you’re looking good Daichi-san!” Noya exclaims. “Let me tell you- white is one of your colors, although black suits you  _ waaay _ more.” He claps a hand on Daichi’s shoulder. “Asahi-san, move those legs!”

“I am!” Asahi defends. He nods at Daichi, flinching at the remains of his apparently Ushijima-esque expression. “I-I like the tie.” The ace gathers before ducking into the clubroom. He sees a flash of orange hair around the corner and quickly follows Asahi, closing the door behind him, dropping his bags so he can immediately start changing. 

“It’s on the groupchat” Suga says, somehow already changed, sitting on the ground with his phone on hand. 

“The uniform?” Daichi clarifies. “Okay, yeah, of course the uniform” he averts his eyes to not see what expression Suga is now wearing. He knows he won’t like it. 

“We need to work on your observation skills” Suga says before putting his phone in a pocket of his duffle bag. Daichi finishes changing after Hinata and Kageyama arrive. After them is Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, then Narita and Kinnoshita, Tanaka and Ennoshita arriving last. Daichi is tackled with questions about Shiratorizawa (yes, I saw the horses. No, I didn’t ride any of them). Hinata, for some reason, is convinced that Daichi is going to the powerhouse school forever. It takes three words from Tsukishima and one from Kageyama to make him change his mind. 

“Oh! Also” Daichi says, making sure to act like he just remembered something “I was in the same tour group as Akaashi from Fukurodani, if you remember him.” There are a chorus of affirmatives. “He’s staying in Miyagi for the weekend so I invited him to our practice. He’s keeping my cousin company.”

“Akaashi-san!” Hinata exclaims, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Did you hear that Kageyama? Akaashi-san is here!”

“Yes” Kageyama says with a nod and he looks happy, eyes childishly wide. It’s moments like this that reminds Daichi that Kageyama is still only a first year. From what Daichi has observed in the half-a-year he’s known the boy, he knows that he’ll latch onto any setter he finds and won’t let go until they’ve basically adopted him and told him some of their ways. Except it’s kind of creepy when you see him muttering questions at high speeds because he’s  _ shy _ . 

“Also, don’t overwhelm any of them” Daichi says before they start walking to the gym. “And don’t touch my cousin. He doesn’t like it. And I don’t want any premature deaths happening in the gym. Now” he claps his hand together “Let’s go!” 

During the short walk to his gym, Daichi tries his best to calm down Hinata and Kageyama’s excitement. He entertains himself by catching snippets of thoughts about how Daichi’s cousin would look like. Narita’s mental image renders what Daichi can only describe as himself except as tall as Nishinoya, wearing gloves and an apron. 

He remembers when Hinata used to not know that much about the volleyball world, only focusing on the game itself. But days spent with Kageyama has led to the boy at least now knowing who a top 5 ace would be without having to bump into them on an empty street and have the ace identify themselves. Daichi is both eager and apprehensive about what will happen when his teammates see Sakusa. He’s a well known throughout the high school volleyball network because of his position as number one ace in the country, the surprise that he’s a second year and not a third year, and the interesting subjects of his mysophobia and freaky wrists. 

The gym doors are already open. The two rowdy first years shove past each other, stepping into the gym at the same time after kicking off their shoes and quickly sliding their feet into their volleyball shoes. 

“AKAASHI-SAN!” Hinata exclaims, running to where Akaashi is tossing to himself. Sakusa stands a meter away from the second year and subtly moves a little farther when Hinata comes running at the setter. 

“Hinata” Akaashi simply replies but there’s a smiles on his face. Then Hinata looks at Sakusa. And tilts his head up. And up. 

“Woah, are you Daichi-san’s cousin?” Hinata asks as the rest of the team files into the gym, Narita and Ennoshita going to get the ball cart out of the storage closet. The managers, coach, and Takeda-sensei will arrive in a few minutes. 

“Tsukki, he’s as tall as you!” Yamaguchi teases, lightly poking the blond. The middle blocker narrows his eyes. Nishinoya runs in and out of the storage room at incredible speeds, carrying the net. 

“Asahi-san, help me with the net!” Noya exclaims. 

“What school do you go to?” Hinata asks. “You look kind of familiar.”

“Itachiyama Academy” Sakusa cooly replies. “Second year. I’m my teams ace.” Kageyama looks at Sakusa with a shocked look on his face. Movement choppy, he looks from Sakusa to Daichi, then Daichi to Sakusa. Suga wraps a hand around the back of Daichi’s neck and he can feel the hum of the teen’s magic. 

“Daichi” Suga says with a close-eyed blinding smile.  _ Get away get away get away _ . “When were you going to mention the number one ace in the country is your cousin?” Daichi winces. 

“Suga, my neck ow ow ow I would of said it eventually” He pleads. “Koushi, let go he’s coming over here!” Sakusa is indeed walking over, both the realization of who he is as well as his intimidating aura drawing attention to him. He stands a few feet away from the two, looking down at Daichi and Suga. 

“How disgusting” is the first thing Sakusa says. “That’s not the proper way to treat your captain.” Daichi can see the intent in the younger’s coal black eyes. “You should be treating him with respect. Be lucky he chose to stay here rather than come to Tokyo.” Suga’s eyes open. 

“Really?” Suga sarcastically says. “Daichi’s my friend. I can treat him like this. You’re his cousin? Never heard about you.” Sakusa looks at him. Observing. Daichi wishes he can escape this situation because it feels like these two are going to kill each other. “Well, Daichi, I see the resemblance. Both of you can scare other people. You also have the same glare.” Then he pats Daichi’s shoulder, slipping his arm off him, calling out to Noya. 

“I don’t like him” Sakusa says. 

“Try not to aim all of your spikes at him” Daichi asks, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“The orange haired child, Hinata, he is exuberant. He is the one with the freak quick?” Daichi nods. 

“You’ll get to see him and Kageyama in action. Might as well warn you in advance but Hinata might stalk you because of your spikes.” Sakusa sighs through his mask and takes the material off his face, folding it an putting it in his jacket pocket. He unzips the jacket and folds it, placing it on top of his duffle. 

“Keiji-kun” Sakusa calls from across the gym. “Come toss to me.” Akaashi excuses himself from where he was talking to Tsukishima, smoothly grabbing a ball from the cart. Daichi joins his team with their stretches off to the side of the gym. 

“Tanaka, Hinata, Asahi” he says. “Stretch properly but also pay attention. He’s an ace, afterall.” Hinata rapidly nods, watching, intrigued, as Akaashi and Sakusa talk to each other for a few moments before Akaashi tosses the ball straight up, and when it comes back at his hands, he adjusts his stands and sends a smooth toss to Sakusa. It’s always entertaining to see that unnatural bend of his wrist before his arm snaps forward and his hand adds an impossible to most spin on the ball, slamming across the court faster than any of Ushijima’s spikes. 

Hinata and Tanaka abandon stretching early to ask Sakusa how he does that. 

* * *

“Daichi, can I talk to you?” Ennoshita asks, joining Daichi for a quick water break while the six on six match continues. One team consists of Sakusa, Akaashi, Daichi, Tanaka, Narita, Kinnoshita, and Yamaguchi while the other team consists of Kageyama, Hinata, Noya, Asahi, Suga, Ennoshita, and Tsukishima. They’re playing sets of fifteen and Daichi’s team has won two sets already as Ennoshita’s gets more and more used to Akaashi and Sakusa on the other team. The spikes are still scary, though, and Daichi fears that one of them will hurt themselves with a botched receive. 

“Sure, what’s up?” Daichi asks. He’s happy, feeling the good mood that rises from both sides of the net. Suga is bent on defeating Sakusa, him and Kageyama pulling off impressive plays due to both of them being setters. 

“You’ve been lying.” Daichi’s heart stops. “I probably shouldn’t tell you but my powers have evolved a bit- I don’t have to touch to feel the full range of emotions or if you lie or not. It’s been eating at you. You feel guilty, and you always are feeling guilty. Why?”

_ Stop _ . 

The world around him freezes. Not metaphorically but literally. He doesn’t do this often because of how much power and concentration it needs. The volleyball is frozen in the air, everyone’s thoughts and minds and nerves and body are frozen. Daichi is the only moving thing in this world. Even the dust in the air is trapped. 

Ennoshita knows. Not really, but Daichi made an error. He never knew Ennochita’s powers evolved. The mental shield he had up wasn’t enough and if he strengthens it now, Ennoshita will definitely grow suspicious. He has to do something that will at least relieve a little bit of that guilt. 

There isn’t a lot of things right now that are making him feel guilty. One of them is lying to his friends about Sakusa. The other is lying to them about his personal life. The third and biggest is hiding the fact that he’s a Horseman from them. Talking about options one and three is off the list. Two is also off the list-

Four. 

Lying about his powers. 

Perhaps. . .he could. Yes. People almost always develop quirks in elementary and middle school. People develop powers either by having their quirk naturally evolve after a few years of having it or they naturally came at a very young age. It is unheard of to develop a quirk or power after the age of eighteen, with few people developing quirks after sixteen. And those people only have weak quirks, such as being able to dry paper or make a square centimeter of ice melt just a bit faster. 

But he can’t do that. None of the four options are going to work. He can’t downplay his own power as a quirk. He’ll just have to somehow talk about his guilt.

He lets the world resume and it’s only been about eight seconds. Everything returns to normal, the game continuing flawlessly, Ennoshita finishing the blink he was in the middle of. 

“Yeah, I feel bad” Daichi sighs. “I sometimes wonder why I don’t have a power of quirk”  _ why I can’t tell any of you  _ “And it’s not really that much of a deal. But Suga goes out so often for patrol and so do Tanaka and Nishinoya. All of you come to me when you have trouble with your powers and I somehow get you to calm down and get under control but what sort of help is that when if we were to be hypothetically attacked  _ I  _ would be the liability? 

“Our world is strange, like a comic book since we have normal people like me but also people like you and Asahi. All of you are always in some sort of danger because of your power, be it because of bad guys or the pro-human party. I just feel it’s horrible of me to want something when I’m fine just the way I am. That I want something that causes some of you pain. I mean, look at Asahi- he hates his power yet I sometimes think why I can’t do that.” 

Ennoshita’s face falls and Daichi knows he has him fooled, building up a wall in his mind to cover up most of the guilt, letting relief mix with the remnants of the negative feeling. 

“I won’t tell anyone” Ennoshita assures him. “It’s fine of you to think like that. If I didn’t have powers and you did I would be so uncomfortable. I trust all of you but it would of been unnerving. Thank you for confiding in me, Daichi.”

Daichi smiles at him. 

“No, thank you.” He says before getting up and switching out with Tanaka.

* * *

  
  


“You two looked like you had fun” Daichi grins when Kuroo arrives at his house with Akaashi and Sakusa in tow.

“You’re team are monsters” Sakusa says. “It was fun, though.” 

Kuroo lets out his ugly laugh. “You guys didn’t tell me how your Karasuno practice went! What did you think about four-eyes?”

“Intelligent and tolerable” Sakusa says. “He is also a realist.”

“I taught him all he knows” Kuroo lets out a wistful noise. “You lucky ducks, being able to see my precious kouh-AGH! Sawamuraaaa” he whines, rubbing the back of his head. 

“You big baby” Daichi grins, telekinetically moving the couches aside while he moves the coffee table closer to the wall so that the futons can be spread properly across the living room floor. “I’ve seen you in the gym shadows during practice in the past.” It was a habit of Kuroo’s, Daichi noticed. But it didn’t bother him. Kuroo would sometimes pop into Karasuno’s gym, cloaking himself in shadows. Only Daichi would notice him because he can tell if a shadow is just a shadow and also because he could feel Kuroo. 

Due to being a telepath, after so many years, his on mind feels empty. Sometimes he likes not feeling others but it can also be the best comfort. Out of all of them, Kuroo’s mind is his favorite. The Nekoma captain is always happy with sharing his brain space with Daichi, the two of them often having mental conversations devoid of words. It’s warm and cozy and when they really sync up, Daichi can see the world through Kuroo’s eyes, observing what the boy is doing at the moment. It’s dangerous, though, because that means Daichi can take over Kuroo’s body. It’s happened once before and the boy was completely fine with it but it scared Daichi. Because once without realizing, he’d been able to get into Kuroo’s mind space when he was in Miyagi and Kuroo was in Tokyo, hundreds of kilometers away from each other. 

It didn’t worry any of his teammates either. 

“But I need to know how my crows are doing!” Kuroo says, opening his mind up. Daichi feels it and he mentally draws closer to the soothing area. 

“Not a good excuse” Daichi says. Akaashi turns the TV on, flipping to a volleyball match of course. Daichi sits himself between Kuroo’s legs and leans his head back against Kuroo’s chest. Kuroo’s arms come around to circle his waist, chin resting on Daichi’s head. 

They aren’t dating or anything and Daichi doesn’t know if either him or Kuroo feel anything romantic towards each other. The cuddles are just nice. And Kuroo likes cuddling. Daichi has seen him tuck himself against Ushijima against sleepovers since he’s taller than him and even Sakusa would sometimes gift any of them with a hug. The conditions are very rare, though, but the hugs are always long and calming. As he’s said a hundred times before, there is a unique bond that has formed between the six of them because of their piles of guilt and secrets, of the dark good they hide in their lives. Of being the only people who are really part of the shadows of their lives. 

The front door opens and Daichi isn’t worried about who it is. 

“We’re not late for the Sawamura sleepover, right?” Oikawa asks, already dressed in his pyjama’s, hair messy and drying. Behind him is Ushijima, dressed in purple shorts and a black t-shirt. He’d look completely normal if not for the plush cow tucked under his arm. 

“Just in time” Daichi answers. Oikawa tosses himself onto the gathered mess of futons, Daichi sitting down next to Sakusa. “The match just started.”

“The MSBY Black Jackals versus Schweiden Adlers” Ushijima states. “I hope to play for the Adlers. They’re a good team.” 

“Bokuto-san was scouted by the Black Jackals yesterday” Akaashi says. “They’re going to keep their eyes on him. He’s rather excited.”

“Oh yeah, he texted me this morning about that” Kuroo grins. “I’m proud of him.”

“It will be good to see him on the other side of the net once again” Ushijima admits. The Adlers serve a jump float serve which the Jackal’s fumble, earning the Adlers a point. 

“It’d be nice to continue playing volleyball” Daichi admits, letting out a yawn right when a row of blockers jump up, nuzzling closer to Kuroo. All of them agree with that. They have their owns dreams, their own thoughts about what they want to do. But what they’re doing right now affects all of them and those dreams are one of the only bright things they can hold on to to distract themselves from the more immediate future. 

The game is interesting. The setter for the Black Jackal’s gets injured by a particularly rough spike so their second setter comes onto the court. This Adlers win the game, three sets to two with a deuce only happening in the first two sets. 

The next morning, Daichi tells them that before morning practice he’s heading to the library with Asahi, Suga, and Kiyoko for a group project. Twenty minutes after that, Kuroo’s hand jerks where the five of them are eating at the dining table. Daichi’s mom had cooked up a delicious menu. 

“Tetsu-chan? What is it?” Oikawa asks as the boy turns pale. 

“Daichi” Kuroo gasps, using the teen’s first name for once. “He and his friends are in danger.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Horsemen/"Villains":  
> Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
> Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
> Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
> Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
> Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation  
> Behind-the-scene-Horsemen:  
> Sakusa - can see and is aware of the smallest details; works as their informant and his place is basically their safe-house  
> Sukehiro-sama - underground doctor and healer
> 
> Heroes  
> Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
> Iwaizumi / Moteo - teleportation via touch (learning to make things teleport without touching)  
> Kenma / Slink - invisibility  
> Lev / Geroy(герой) - elastic limbs  
> Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers  
> Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
> Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
> Yaku / Healer - can heal someone and feel their emotions, mood, power when healing
> 
> "Hero allies"  
> Asahi - retractable forarm length metal claws, enhanced hearing+smell, superfast healing factor (wolverine basically)  
> Kiyoko - hydrokinesis  
> Atsumu - persuasion/manipulation (limited mind control), surface feelings empath, enhanced stealth  
> Osamu - Teleportation (less powerful than Iwa):  
> Ennoshita - (quirk has evolved into a power) empath and lie/truth detection


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daichi being Daichi  
> It does not have good consequences  
> For anyone

All of them wanted to go, but they knew they couldn’t. It would look suspicious: four of the Horsemen suddenly coming to rescue a no-power civilian, two powered civilians, and a superhero. 

So, of course, Kuroo was the one to go. And the situation he was met with wasn’t one he was expecting.

_ Five minutes ago. . . _

The four of them chat while they walk to the library. Daichi walks between Asahi and Kiyoko while Koushi stands on Asahi’s other side. Asahi and Koushi are actually discussing what they’ll be working on at the library while Daichi plays around with a small kitsune Kiyoko made out of water, controlling the little creatures movement as it runs up the side of Daichi’s arm, up his neck, before nestling on his hair. Daichi actually forgets that it’s made out of water and it’s only when he senses mischief from Kiyoko does his eyes snap upward and the kitsune explode, dousing Daichi with water. 

“I was waiting for that to happen!” Koushi laughs. 

“Betrayed by own friends” Daichi grumbles. 

“ _ You’re  _ the traitor” Koushi reminds “Leaving us for Shiratorizawa.” Daichi looks at Kiyoko for support but she simply looks away, discretely sending a pea-sized ball of water at Koushi’s face only for a tendril of his magic to appear and block it, the droplets rebounding onto Asahi. 

“Koushi, you got water on me” Asahi frowns. 

“Blame Kiyoko.”

“It’s Koushi’s fault. He’s the one who deflected his punishment.”

“But what did  _ I  _ do!?”

“Yes, what did you do. You did a lot of things, Sugawara Koushi the hero known as Rouge.” The four of them stop in their tracks and turn around. It screams danger. Daichi mentally frowns because he couldn’t feel any presence. He didn’t know anyone was sneaking up on them. 

The man looks tired but vengeful. His brows are heavy, eyes obviously narrowed even behind the sunglasses he wears and the hood of a dark Osaka University sweatshirt. Koushi looks confused. 

“How do you know who I am?” He asks. 

“You sent my brother to jail” he hisses. “He gave you a lot of trouble, I heard. Does the name Craze dig up any memories?” 

Daichi remembers Craze. He had been on the Horsemen’s hit list. Kuroo and Oikawa had gone out to get him only to have someone else get to him before. The Association. He had apparently gone rogue after the Association wanted to transfer him off the field and to investigation because of his power to invoke any emotion out of his target. He would of been useful, making inmates want to be honest and guilty and spill everything, but he had been taking money from small businesses under the guise of “protecting” them. 

It was Koushi, along with a few familiar names, who had taken down Craze without any of them being affected, thankfully. 

“You shouldn’t be approaching us” Kiyoko cooly says, water starting to form around her still right hand. “Just because only one of us are heroes doesn’t mean we’re helpless.” 

“Same for me” the guy says. He seems arrogant. Overconfident. “I read up on you and all your friends. Three of you with powers: two listed, one unlisted, and this guy” he nods at Daichi “Powerless. Normal. Normal is a strange word now and days. Is it really normal to not have a power or quirk when quite the portion of the world has those powers? Just because powerless humans came first doesn’t mean their normal. 

“You know we have a power but we don’t know if you have one” Koushi snarks and Daichi swears that’s going to be the end of him one day. Daichi tries to approach the guy’s mind but it’s not like there’s a wall around it but everything’s moving too fast for him to grasp onto anything besides flashes of feelings and a single fact:

This guy is powerful. 

So he does one of the few things he can do. He reaches out to the only person he can accurately reach at this distance, quickly telling Kuroo the only things he needs to know: Craze powers, Daichi and his friends are in trouble. Be careful. Although he’s sure Kuroo will ignore the last one.

“Sure!” Cocky. Too cocky. And it isn’t baseless. “I have the same power as my dear brother. But I’ve always been more powerful than him. That’s why I never fell into the trap that is becoming a Hero, with all the restrictions and stuff. And I love my brother. I basically lost him, now that he’s locked away for almost two decades. I want you to feel helpless, Sugawara-kun.”

“Try your best” Koushi grits, gathering his magic. “You won’t be able to do anything.”

“That’s the thing. My brother, he shoots his power. Mine doesn’t have a physical manifestation. That’s why my power, although it’s the same as my brother’s, falls under the category of being a telepathic ability. I’ve already used my power, and you three have waited too long. All of you will probably be dead by the time it wears off.” 

Daichi frowns. He doesn’t feel anything. Koushi has the mild anger and annoyance at this guy approaching and threatening him, frustration, and then realization. Kiyoko is calm as always but there’s something new trickling in. 

He can’t feel Asahi. 

“Too late” the guy smirks. Daichi hears a low whine come from his right. His heard snaps to that direction and his eyes widen when he sees Asahi. 

The teen’s hunched over, his fingers clutching his head. His body is tense and shaking. He’s probably made Asahi scared, ramped up the fear that the teen can feel so easily. 

“Asahi?” Daichi asks, brow furrowing in concern. He needs to help his friend but he can’t even reach him. He’s probably in so much pain right now. Comfort. He does like hugs. Asahi once told them what helps him calm down. Soothing words, jokes, casual touches, and then a nice, long, hug-

So this is how Oikawa had felt like. 

Asahi’s eyes are narrowed, pupils dilated, the blacks almost covering the brown of his eyes. His teeth are bared, teeth bared and ground together, lips pulled back and canines shining. Red starting to trail down his cheeks and forehead. Daichi looks down, down at the three metal claws dripping blood and buried to the knuckles. Right in the ribcage, the three claws lines diagonally with the top of the line being on the left side of his chest and the third claw reaching the middle of his chest. 

“DAICHI!” He hears Koushi scream and Asahi tears his claws from his chest. He feels to his knees, hands coming up to feel the wounds. 

It’s weird. He doesn’t feel any of the pain. 

He can’t talk. 

He can’t move. 

Asahi. . .stabbed him. One of his closest friends, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, just stabbed him. He feels bad. Asahi will probably turn himself in under the label that he’s a threat to humanity. Daichi doesn’t want that to happen. He’s heard that Russia likes experimenting on powered people with potential. 

He sees Koushi battling it out with Asahi, dodging and blocking the taller teen’s blurry blows, metal claws flashes of silver in the air. 

“Koushi” Kiyoko says. “I’ll handle Asahi. There’s someone else here.” Daichi has fallen onto his side at this point, trying to fight of unconsciousness as he watches the ground under him stain, not even having the energy to use his own power to temporarily halt the bleeding. He can’t really hear what’s going on around him and he doesn’t know where exactly Asahi stabbed him (one of his best friends stabbed him. . .) but he can feel blood in his mouth. 

But he can still see. 

He can see a figure clad in black with lines of red, coat ridiculous in this weather, seemingly appear out of nowhere, coming up from Craze’s brother’s shadow, twisting around and kicking him right on the back of his head, effectively knowing the man out, before raising his hand just in time to have a smokey darkness envelop the energy blast that Koushi sends at him. 

“IDIOTS!” Erebus roars, voice muffled and unrecognizable behind the mask. “The Hell is going on here?” And then his eyes land on Daichi. All he manages is a small, bloody smiles. Then he sees Asahi, bloody, doused in water, and feral going after a slowing Kiyoko. Kuroo’s swearing. That’s new. 

“What are  _ you  _ doing here?” Koushi seethes. 

“Don’t call for anyone! Why aren’t you binding Azumane?” 

Koushi’s eyes widen and he flinches back in shock. 

“What-”

“Stop questioning me. From what I see, Sawamura’s best friend just stabbed him and none of you are doing anything to stop the bleeding or knocking out and tying said best friend.” Erebus quickly goes onto his knees and Daichi can see the worry in those amber orbs. Erebus turns Daichi onto his side and almost immediately he starts coughing out the blood in his mouth, breathing becoming significantly easier. But the pain also creeps up on him. 

“Don’t you hotshots have a healer?” Erebus snaps. Daichi can’t help but smirk. He’s getting too cozy with his role of playing villain. “Give me his address, quick. I can teleport all of us there since you won’t let me go alone.”

“Here!” Koushi tosses Erebus his phone. It’s on the contacts list. “His name’s Yaku. I have his address saved. He should be there.” Erebus doesn’t even go to the contact, only closes the phone. Even half-dead Daichi knows what Erebus is doing: he knows where Yaku lives. He was planning on taking him there instead of kidnapping him and taking him to their underground doctor. He can’t act like he knows where Yaku lives so he has to pretend. And this. . .he’s also building trust. 

“You’re thinking too much” Erebus whispers, pressing harder on the wounds on Daichi’s chest and back, black cloth barely soaking up any blood. “Is he knocked out yet?”

“He’s almost invincible!” Koushi says. “Kiyoko, go with Daichi and Erebus to Yaku’s. I’ll call Iwaizumi and have him take me to Yaku’s.” He dodges another one of Asahi’s blows and kicks him in the ribs. It doesn’t have any effect. “And Nishinoya and Tsukishima. Hopefully they’ll be able to clam him down.”

Any other day, Daichi would be concerned about Koushi just listing out the names of heroes. If Erebus was an actual villain, they’d all be in danger. But Kuroo’s no villain. He wonders how scared Koushi is to not think about that. 

“Here” Erebus tosses the phone to Koushi, who catches it while stopping Asahi from getting closer to Daichi. “I have it dialing Iwaizumi. Tell him to grab your two helps. Kiyoko, was it? Grab onto my shoulder. And if you can, form a shadow around us. 

“I got you!” Koushi says, cheek getting nicked. A circle appears a few meters above them, his magic gathering, solidifying, then layering so that it creates an area blocked by the sun. 

Erebus quickly scoops Daichi off and the movement jostles his body, causing him to try and scream, only for the sound to get choked off by his body. The travelling is cold and painful. It never had before. He’s not used to this. He doesn’t like it. He want it to stop. His fingers scrabble to Kuroo’s coat, struggling to get a grip, mind not registering the pain that courses across Kiyoko’s face or shows in Kuroo’s eyes. He doesn’t know he’s projecting.

“WHAT THE F-”

“He needs help!” Kiyoko exclaims, the loudest she’s ever been, and Daichi’s hands fall from Kuroos’s coat. 

_ Don’t go don’t go don’t go _

“I’m not” Kuroo says. 

“Put him on the couch, now.” He hears Yaku order and there’s other voices in the background. He thinks they’re also Nekoma players. It’s funny, all of them gathering now that they think Kuroo’s all the way in Miyagi. 

_ Get in my mind _ Kuroo thinks to him and Daichi gladly pulls himself towards the comfort just as Yaku’s fingers splay over his chest. Warm. Comforting. Just like the night before.  _ Sleep _ . 

Sleep. 

* * *

  
  


Koushi sits between Iwaizumi and Kiyoko. 

Having Iwaizumi bring Nishinoya and Tsukishima was a wise choice. Otherwise, Koushi fears he’d be in the same position as Daichi. Nishinoya had immediately freaked out when he saw how Asahi was like but Koushi had been able to calm him down. He and Iwaizumi were able to distract Asahi for long enough that Nishinoya could run to a store, “borrow” some rope, and momentarily tie Asahi up for long enough that Tsukishima could touch him. 

After a dozen attempts, twenty minutes, and small cuts on all of them except for Tsukishima, they had succeeded in knockin Asahi up and then nearly mummifying him with rope. Then they took him to Akiteru’s apartment, which earned them a frightened big brother but also a place to keep the teen. Akiteru isn’t a member of the Association but he has the same power as Tsukishima but his were more powerful in the way that rather than simply nullifying he could “steal” the power of the person he touched for an amount of time. If Asahi woke up with the dubbed “Craze Effect” still in place, he’d be left tied up. If not, then he’d be released. And have to deal with an emotionally conflicted Nishinoya who decided to camp out in Akiteru’s living room. 

Craze’s brother, on the other hand Nishinoya had tied and gagged to a tree for future retrieval. 

Daichi’s healing was going good. They could see his wounds healing through the holes of his shirt. The healing was going slow since Yaku was making Daichi’s body create blood simultaneously with healing. 

The Nekoma team members who had been in the Yaku household were kicked out by Yaku while in various states of shock and concern. 

Which leaves one half-dead Daichi, one powered civilian, three heroes, and one supervillain. Who wasn’t trying to kill them. And had also saved Daichi. Somehow. 

“So” Iwaizumi says, being the first to try awkwardly starting the conversation. “Your name’s Erebus?”

“Not my real name, but the coolest one the papers were calling me.” Erebus’s eyes flick up for a single moment from staring at Daichi. Even with the hood, Koushi can see two bright amber eyes. 

“I have a question” Kiyoko says. “When we were. . .travelling, I felt pain. Why was that?”

“When you travel, I literally dissolve each of us into what you could call a shadow form. It’s weird. But sometimes strong feelings, like immense pain, can be shared in that space. Because shadows aren’t individuals, if you get it.”

“Never heard you talk before” Iwaizumi says. “Why are you villains so untalkative?” Erebus’s eyes narrow. 

“I’m not mute” he growls. “We don’t talk because we’re paranoid. Can you blame us? We don’t want anyone knowing who we are.”

“So how does Daichi know you?” Koushi asks. He doesn’t have time for all of them to get all buddy-buddy. 

“We. . .met. Before.” Erebus awkwardly says. 

“Does it have something to do with his powers?” Yaku asks. Koushi’s head snaps to the side to where Yaku is frowning while healing Daichi. 

“Powers?”

“Can’t believe I’m having this conversation again. Iwaizumi, you explain.”

“Sure.” Koushi can see the intrigue in Erebus’s eyes. Intrigue and. . .fear? “When Yaku heals someone, he basically kind of can feel their body? And that includes powers and quirks. He can feel the energy unique to people or some shit like that. I can’t even explain it properly.” He shakes his head. “Simplified version is that he can tell wether someone has a power or not.”

“Sawamura doesn’t have any powers” Erebus says. “I’m close to Sawamura and I know that he has friends with powers. That could track the wrong kind of attention so I had one of our associates put a sort of thing on Sawamura that would alert me to if he gets injured or not. That’s why I came when I did. I don’t even live in Miyagi.” Yaku frowns. “It’s powerful magic. Has to reach me from anywhere in Japan, shorty.” 

“Don’t call me shorty.”

There’s a few moments of silence. 

“So why haven’t you knocked me out or anything?” Erebus asks after a few moments. 

“Honestly, I don’t know why” Koushi confesses. “You care for Daichi, and Daichi knows you because he didn’t freak out or anything.” A moment of silence. “You don’t look or sound like a middle-aged man up close.”

“I’m not!” Kuroo protests. 

“You’re a high schooler, aren’t you.” Iwaizumi says. Erebus doesn’t nod or shake his head.

“You guys are confusing” Erebus huffs. “One moment you’re trying to kill all of us and the next we got a truce because I save one of your buddies.”

“Why aren’t you trying to kill us?” Iwaizumi leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You, the Horsemen, you’re know for hunting down so many heroes.” Erebus sighs. He props a elbow on the arm of the armchair he’s sitting in, crossing a booted leg over the other. 

“If you look at the list, and did your research” Erebus slowly says, not looking at them but staring at the ground. “You’ll see a pattern in the heroes we hunt down. Do your research before you accuse or hop on the bandwagon. There’s a reason Sawamura didn’t freak out, you’re right. And that” Erebus’s voice turns honest. “That’s because Sawamura’s probably the nicest person in all of Japan. If not, the whole world.

“Sawamura found me before I became Erebus, or any of the other names early on in my career. He helped me understand my powers. He helped Arashi too. That kid, he was so scared of himself at first.” He lets out a nostalgic sound. “He didn’t have much control, was so scared of hurting each of us. Sawamura especially. But he wasn’t scared. He just talked Arashi through his fears and helped him learn how to be a kid again.

“When we chose the path we did, he didn’t judge. Because he knew why we were doing what we were doing.” Koushi tries not to flinch when he sees the tendrils of black that rise like smoke from parts of Erebus’s body. Koushi wonders if he did research on his name before selecting it. But he also feels a sense of betrayal, looking at his best friend’s bleeding body. 

He tries to think back to all the times he talked to Daichi about the Horsemen. About his interest with each of Koushi’s outings as a hero. About the worry that’s always in his eyes no matter what story Koushi tells him about. 

_ How much worry is Daichi always feeling? Here I am, always talking about taking down his friends. It seems like he knows Arashi and Erebus. Does he know Loki? Does he know Azrael? _

“You aren’t going to tell the Association about Sawamura, right?” And Erebus sounds scared. It’s not obvious, but it’s there. 

“No” Yaku says. “I. . .I barely know Sawamura. Only from training camp and texts I get from his team. And the heroes who talk about him. But a lot us respect him as a human being, even though he’s normal.”

“And I don’t want anything happening to him” Koushi agrees. “I’ve heard of some of the Association’s interrogation methods for the more dangerous people. Who knows what they’ll do to Daichi if they figure out he’s known at least two of the Horsemen since before their careers.”

“If I can say something” Kiyoko finally speaks up. “It will be smart to ask Daichi these questions when he wakes up. Erebus, we’d like it if you’d stay. We won’t be asking for your identity or anything but both of you will be more honest in each other’s presence.” 

Koushi stares at Erebus. He remembers watching him block out light, fighting some of the most powerful heroes in Japan. He’s seen the full extent of his powers but he was holding back against Asahi. 

And he knew Asahi’s name. 

He knows more about them than they know about him. 

Koushi can’t say he trusts him, but. . .he’s clearly not a supervillain if Daichi, the truest and most honest person Koushi knows, trusts him. He doesn’t let things like personal opinion get in the way most of the time. 

“Daichi. . .you’ve never hurt him.” Koushi clarifies. He knows what the answer is. Erebus looks stricken with horror at the question. 

“No, I’d never hurt him! I mean, the proper answer is yes, I’ve never hurt him. Yeah.”

“And you had nothing to do with Craze’s brother going after us?”

“No. His brother, Craze, was on our hitlist. We were going to go after him but you heroes got him first.”

“We really don’t know a lot about the Horsemen, do we.”

“You really don’t.”

“Okay. Kenma, you can stop holding the bat to his head.” Erebus’s eyes widen at what Koushi says. 

“What-” but then he turns around and there’s a slight shimmer in the air and Kenma becomes visible again, lowering the cricket bat Koushi had seen Kenma hold against his chest in the corner of the room, still visible, only turning invisible and approaching Erebus when the conversation turned serious. 

Erebus, thankfully, doesn’t ask any questions. 

None of them do. 

It feels weird and Koushi has to fight not to do something because there is a  _ villain  _ in Yaku’s living room. But there is also a Daichi, who would probably be dead if not for Erebus, along with so many unanswered questions. Some of which Koushi is too scared to actually think about. 

“He should be awake within the our” Yaku says. “I’m just working on the finer things and getting the bone shards back in place and sealed. He’s definitely going to live so you guys can stop being so stiff. Erebus, you play any sports?”

“Yeah.”

“How do you feel about volleyball?”

“It’s a fine game.”

Koushi can tell where Yaku is taking this. He can also see Iwaizumi become more focus, keen on picking apart the conversation. 

“Since my captain’s in Miyagi, let me tell you about the Nekoma boys’ volleyball team. Our captain, he’s a complete and utter idiot. There’s this thing he says before every game. . .” 

Koushi relaxes just a little bit when Erebus snorts at a description of Lev’s powers and how he shouldn’t of gotten powers that made his noodle limbs even more noodly. The atmosphere is a little bit lighter. Iwaizumi joins in with the topic of coincidental powers. There’s an infamous hero duet from Aoba Johsai: Kabe and Don. The KabeDon duo. Kabe has the power of turning their skin to metal while Don can manipulate metal and because of that, make Kabe fly. And control his movements. Some of the videos are super hilarious and Iwaizumi says that sometimes his school’s volleyball club would watch the clips in the locker room to tease the two because they like saying telling the stories instead of having them watch it. 

All of them miss Daichi waking up, even Yaku. The only thing that alerts them to his consciousness is his laugh at Iwaizumi and Yaku drawling out the duo’s catchphrase of “Kabe, Don” and then slamming their hands together “KabeDon!” in the blandest way possible. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. . .the numbers are racking up even more. And If you didn't figure out who the KabeDon duo are, just find them below in the _Heroes_ section. I would suggest looking up what "kabedon" is as well as properly analysing their "catchphrase" that Iwaizumi and Yaku demonstrated. Next chapter will have our dear Daichi waking up, dealing with the chaos he and Kuroo made, as well as comforting Asahi (poor boy, I love him. Please don't hurt him- wait. I did hurt him. I'm a horrible person.) I totally made Lev have elastic capabilities so that Yaku could tease him. And once again, Daichi's identity had a close save courtesy of Kuroo. If you have any questions on if anyone has a power or quirk or is normal, you can asks, but it'll probably be revealed in later chapters. But it's not a secret or anything, so. . . .
> 
> And next chapter might be intro to Shiratorizawa depending on how much I wanna type ;D
> 
> Horsemen/"Villains":  
>  Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
>  Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
>  Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
>  Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
>  Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation  
> Behind-the-scene-Horsemen:  
>  Sakusa - can see and is aware of the smallest details; works as their informant and his place is basically their safe-house  
>  Sukehiro-sama - underground doctor and healer
> 
> Heroes  
>  Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
>  Iwaizumi / Moteo - teleportation via touch (learning to make things teleport without touching)  
>  Kenma / Slink - invisibility  
>  Lev / Geroy(герой) - elastic limbs  
>  Hanakami / Don - ferrokinesis (metal manipulation)  
>  Matsukawa / Kabe - skin to metal  
>  Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers  
>  Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
>  Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
>  Yaku / Healer - can heal someone and feel their emotions, mood, power when healing
> 
> "Hero allies"  
>  Asahi - (P) retractable forarm length metal claws, enhanced hearing+smell, superfast healing factor (wolverine basically)  
>  Kiyoko - (P) hydrokinesis  
>  Atsumu - (P) persuasion/manipulation (limited mind control), surface feelings empath, enhanced stealth  
>  Osamu - (P) Teleportation (less powerful than Iwa):  
>  Ennoshita - (P) empath and lie/truth detection  
>  Akiteru - (P) temporary power absorption (rogue, basically, except better)


	8. Chapter 8

“Asahi-san?” Nishinoya knocks on the door, swallowing the lump of sorrow in his throat. He wants to comfort the third-year, but how can he when the guy is scared of himself, more than ever now, based off of the muffled shouts he heard when Akiteru went up to talk to him. 

But Nishinoya couldn’t just  _ leave him on his own _ ! Asahi, all alone, so scared. The only time the libero had really seen his ace being angry was after that faithful match against Dateko in his first year. But even then it had been more like frustration rather than actual rage. What that man did to Asahi a few hours ago- Nishinoya holds back a shudder. He’s not a violent guy, not using his hero status as a way to let out his pent up rage unlike other heroes he’s seen, but he  _ really  _ feels like at least breaking the guy’s limbs. 

There’s no reply from the other side of the door. Nishinoya tries again. “Asahi-san!” Go straight for the kill. “I want to give you a hug! Even if you hurt me, which I know you totally won’t, I’ll be fine! Accelerated healing, remember?”

Still silent. 

“Asahi-san, I’m going to come in whether you want me to or not. I’m really worried about you.” He puts his back against the door and slides down, crossing his legs and resting his elbows on his knees. “I got a call from Suga-san. Daichi-san is okay. Yaku-san healed healed him right back up, and guess what? That supervillain guy, Erebus,  _ he’s  _ the one who saved them! Crazy, right? Apparently Daichi-san knows him from before he became a weird psycho. Said some pretty vague things as well that Suga-san is going to investigate with Iwa-san. And you know that Dai-san is fine! How else will he infiltrate Shittytorizawa for us?”

“You shouldn’t be so mean to other schools, Nishinoya.”

Nishinoya’s heart thumps. He rests his head against the door in relief. 

“It’s hard not to be when any of those villain dudes can be hunkering down there.” He hears some movement on the other side, just for about a second. He jumps into a vague conspiracy theory about who the Horsemen could be, starting off with all of them being members of the Shinzen VBC seeking revenge because other teams are becoming better at combos than them. 

“So can I give you a hug now? I wanna hug you.  _ Pleeeaaaaaaseeeee _ ~” he begs. “You’re making me touch starved here!” He likes to think that at that moment, the older teen is smiling. That small, soft, warm smile that should be protect at all costs and that piece of trash  _ dared  _ to try and take that away. 

“I could use a hug” Asahi mutters, nearly inaudible. “The door was been unlocked for a while.” Nishinoya perks up and rushes into the guest room. He ignores the state Asahi is in, with ropes piled in the corner, clothes stained with blood that isn’t his own, arms crossed with hands tucked and hidden from view, the wrecked look on his face and the shape of his hair now that it’s no longer tied back. 

Throwing himself onto the bed, Asahi lets out a  _ squeak _ . Nishinoya wraps his arms around the ace, resting his head on his shoulder. Asahi doesn’t return the hug but he leans into Nishinoya’s hold, slumping, resting his head on the other’s shoulder in turn. 

“It’s really not your fault, you know” Nishinoya says, rubbing circles into the teen’s back. 

“It is” Asahi sniffs. “If I had a little more control, then Daichi wouldn’t of been in so much pain. I shouldn’t of let my emotions get to me. And he was just trying to help me, like he knew what was going to happen. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if he d-d-d” he can’t even finish the word, choosing to burst into tears instead. 

“No one blames you” Nishinoya soothes. “No one blames you.”

“That’s the worst part” Asahi’s muffled voice comes. Nishinoya feels his arms twitch, as if Asahi wants to return the embrace but he’s stopping himself. He probably is. They  _ had  _ to do this to Asahi of all people. Not that he wanted it to happen to Kiyoko or Suga or Daichi but Asahi isn’t the same type of mentally strong as them. Sure, the other three would of been sorry for whatever they did, but they would of bounced back really quickly. 

“I know all of you don’t blame me, that it’s not my fault, but I can’t stop thinking that it  _ is _ . You don’t know how it felt, thinking back and remembering stabbing  _ Daichi  _ and enjoying it! I even licked his  _ blood _ ” Asahi sobs, twisting his head so that while it still rests on Nishinoya’s shoulder, he’s facing away from the second year. Asahi trembles. This is actually starting to make Nishinoya  _ truly  _ worried. Asahi’s not calming down. He’s not calming down he’s not calming down. The trembling just seems to hesitate when Asahi hesitantly wraps his own arms around Nishinoya. 

“Hey, you negative beard. I didn’t get a get well soon card when I woke up.” 

Both Nishinoya and Asahi flinch, looking up at the doorway. Suga is cackling from over Daichi’s shoulder. The normal teen, on the other hand, has a knowing smirk on his face, eyes tired hair mussed, as if he just woke up from an uneventful sleep. 

“Daichi-san!” Nishinoya exclaims. “He keeps on blaming himself!” 

Asahi’s lower lip quivers and he bites down on it, brow furrowing as he looks at his best friends. 

“Daichi, a-a-are you o-o-okay?” He tentatively asks. Daichi huffs and rolls his eyes. 

“Of course I am. Are you doubting Yaku’s skill?” Daichi sits himself next to Asahi, ignoring the taller teen’s trembling and the way that he moves away from Daichi, as if their captain were the dangerous one there when he’s actually the most vulnerable. 

“N-no.”

Suga laughs from the doorway. 

“I’m going to talk to Akiteru-san” Suga says. “I’ll leave you three.” And then he’s gone. 

Nishinoya probably has the most respect for Daichi, besides Asahi of course. He’s so honest and trusting and his scary face can make the most powerful hero’s knees tremble. From the phonecall he got from Suga, it seems like it’s not just normal, quirked, and powered humans who respect him but also  _ supervillains _ . Erebus had disappeared ten minutes after Daichi woke up, thanking them for not trying to knock him down or anything and also for taking care of Daichi. 

There’s no fear in his eyes. He’s not wary of Asahi, not thinking about if there are any lingering effects of whatever power was cast on Asahi. 

“Getting stabbed was always on my bucket list” Daichi muses after a painful minute of silence. “It’s better that it was by someone I knew rather than some stranger.” Both Nishinoya and Asahi look at Daichi incredulously. “I’ve been caught up, surprisingly, in a lot of hero versus villain fights. Can’t say I’ve left all of them unscraped. Now that I know how it feels, I don’t plan on getting stabbed anytime soon. So thank you for that experience.” Then he slings an arm over Asahi, who has become even more horrified with himself. Nishinoya feels mildly concerned for Daichi. Did he hit his head?

“If I remember correctly, summer break before second year. I tripped you and that was the first time you sprained your ankle.”

“Y-yeah?”

“Okay.” He pats Asahi’s back. “Just making sure you remembered. Now we’re even.” Both Asahi and Nishinoya blink at Daichi. 

“What sort of logic is  _ that _ !?” Asahi exclaims, running his fingers through his hair. “Daichi, are you passing math?”

“Of course I am! I have to be if I’m abandoning all of you for, what was it? Shittytorizawa?” Nishinoya gawks. 

“B-b-but you weren’t here!” Daichi sends him a side look and the two of them decide against questioning him. 

“Anyway, I don’t know if Suga told my mom about what happened. This is going to be a god story to tell her about why I was late coming home.”

“NO!” Asahi exclaims. “Don’t tell your mom that I stabbed you, please! I’m really sorry about that!” Daichi just reaches us to pat the ace’s head before wacking the back of it.

“Pft. I know you’re sorry, you idiot. Listen to Nishinoya more. Now are you going to wallow in here all day or are you going to let someone get you a change of change of clothes, we can forget about all of this, and go and do our project?” 

Nishinoya laughs at Asahi’s face because the look on his face is priceless. Asahi blushes and looks at his feet. 

“I stabbed you” Asahi says “And you’re more worried about the project which you won’t even be here to submit?” Daichi grins and nods. 

“Of course. I want to get a scholarship, you know.”

Nishinoya doesn’t know if he should laugh, cry, or call Suga to take Daichi to a psychologist. Because if he’s putting school over his physical health, blowing off a stabbing in favor of completing a project. . .Nishinoya will never be able to think like that. Volleyball is life. And so is staying alive for that. 

* * *

Monday morning, second years Akaashi Keiji and Sakusa Kiyoomi, and third years Kuroo Tetsurou, Oikawa Tooru, and Sawamura Daichi temporarily join the ranks of the elite school known as Shiratorizawa Academy. They enter for the first time, pretending not to know each other. Come lunch and to the rest of the world, friendships are quickly formed, a hatred is mostly dismantled with Ushijima’s arrival, and Satori and Reon finally learn who this “Daichi-kun” that Ushijima occasionally mentions is. 

At Fukurodani Academy, volleyball practice goes on as usual except for the fact that the team is a little bit more cautious around their captain because none of them have the skill Akaashi has with bringing Bokuto down from his emo modes, regardless of the fact that they’ve had a whole year without the setter before. 

At Metropolitan Nekoma High, the team collectively voices their gratefulness towards Shiratorizawa for taking their captain away from them for a week. The practices are lightly more controlled, Lev and Yamamoto are more out of control, Yaku is in a much better mood, Kenma is slightly less motivated, and the air is free of any chemistry puns. They all miss their captain and his annoying bedhead. 

At Karasuno High School, Ennoshita and Suga have to work together to keep just about everyone under control without having a Daichi to simply look and get just about anything under control. Thankfully, Ychi seems to be able to calm down the first years very easily, it take only takes a simple command from Kiyoko to reroute the second years’ attention, and Takeda’s stern voice to minimalize the damage all of them may do. 

At Aoba Johsai, just about the whole team is enjoying their captain’s absence. No more Iwaizumi spiking balls at the back of his head, pleads for milk breads, strange training techniques that will never be used ever again. But they all miss their captain. His quirks have become part of their daily schedule and their days seem less excitable and boring. Kindaichi and Yahaba especially miss their senpai. 

But, outside of class hours, the Horsemen don’t show up for a day. Then two. Then a third. The heroes grow a bit more angsty, especially the squads assigned with tracking down and potentially taking in any number of the Horsemen. They think they’re preparing for something big, rather than learning how to ride on a horse. They think secret deals are being made with the Yakuza, such as smuggling weapons, rather than stopping on the street to get a box of mochi given by a yakuza leader sent by one of their underlings. They think the Horsemen are laying low because maybe they were almost discovered when they’re actually paying attention to their studies and volleyball. 

In that week, a lot happens. For who it benefits, it depends. In summary, most of the people have just about no idea about what is going to happen next. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will most likely starr the heroes!


	9. Chapter 9

“So how are you doing?” 

Oikawa lets out a yelp, head turning. He pouts but relaxes when he sees Iwaizumi sitting next to him. “Mean, Iwa-chan. Trying to scare me.” He pouts. Iwaizumi rolls his eyes, lowering himself so that he’s also sitting at the edge of the roof of Shiratorizawa’s dorms. 

“That’s what you get” Iwaizumi replies. “You’ve had a week here and day before you return, you finally decide to actually call me over.” Oikawa shrugs in the moonlight, tipping back to that he’s lying on his back, legs dangling over the side of the roof. Iwaizumi doesn’t join him, instead leaning back on his hands, looking up at the sky before looking down at his setter. He wrinkles his nose. “You don’t look any different.” Oikawa raises an eyebrow. 

“Why would I?”

“You because friends with Ushijima. You sent us  _ pictures _ .”

“I already told you this over the phone” Oikawa rolls his eyes, weakly slapping Iwaizumi’s arm. “Shiratorizawa is okay, but not good enough to take me from Seijoh.” Iwaizumi nods. “So you aren’t allowed to talk about heroing over the phone because of security issues or whatever. So what’s been happening this week? Have you caught up to the Horsemen?”

“No, actually.” Iwaizumi says. “It’s frustrating. This week has been  _ too  _ relaxing. You’re not around-”

“Hey!”

“And we’ve gotten quite a few leads.” Something crosses over Iwaizumi’s face. The ace bites his lower lip. Oikawa looks at his best friend with worry. If he could, if he really could, he would tell Iwaizumi the truth. And it really does hurt when you feel like that for this one thing, you can’t even trust your best friend. “I forgot to ask you, but hows Sawamura doing?”

“He’s perfectly fine” Oikawa says. “He gets along too well with Ushiwaka.” Iwaizumi snorts. “Now, continue with your leads. You didn’t look really happy about that.”

“Yeah. We know that all the Horsemen, they’re around our age. They’re young.” Oikawa hums, pretending to be in thought. In reality, all of his senses have become hyperaware, as if anything could happen. This is what he feels before he steps into another battle that could possible kill him and his fellow villainous do-gooders. “We got a bunch of information from talking with Erebus a week ago, but Sawamura is out biggest lead. He knows the Horsemen personally.” Oikawa’s eyes widen and he allows his jaw to drop a little. Surprise. Show surprise. Loki doesn’t just trick his enemies, but also the people he loves. 

“Sawamura Daichi?” Oikawa gasps. “But he’s-he’s” he flails for the word “He’s Daichi!” Iwaizumi nods.

“I talked with the others and we’re sure Sawamura isn’t involved with the Horsemen, being powerless. It just seems like he’s befriended those villains. We’re planning on moving in on the Horsemen soon. We’ve got in contact with some Shiratorizawa’s heroes.”

“Tendou and Semi, yes?” Oikawa asks. “Shiratorizawa, for such a grand school, only half of their team has quirks or powers. Even Ushiwaka is a normie!” The corner of Iwaizumi’s mouth tugs upward. Oikawa rolls over so that he’s propped on his side. “What else? How  _ big _ ” he waves a hand “is this operation going to be?”

“Now I can’t even tell you that” Iwaizumi says, teeth flashing. He flicks Oikawa’s forehead, earning another yelp. “Their leader can read minds, remember? And you aren’t trained in protecting your thoughts.” Oikawa huffs. 

“Fine.” But deep, deep down, he feels weird. Something is going to happen. If Iwaizumi isn’t telling him, that means that the heroes are definitely planning something. 

They talk for little longer before Iwaizumi finally leaves. Oikawa waits ten minutes, just to make sure, and then turns into a sparrow, flying over the edge of the building, down, and through the open window of Ushijima’s dorm room. He feels bad for deceiving Iwaizumi like that, but…

“Did you get it, Daichi?” He says right after turning human again. Daichi looks up from where he’s sitting next to the window. Tetsurou and Keiji are still typing, finishing putting down all the thoughts Daichi had read and said out loud. The atmosphere of the room is tense. Kiyoomi looks worried, with his hands stuffed deep in his pocket and his shoulders hunched forward more than usual. Wakatoshi is looking down at a hand where a little vine is threading itself through his fingers before it quickly crumbles and disappears. 

“I was able to get some before his thoughts switched” the telepath says with a slight frown. Tooru pats him on the head before turning around and closing the window and lowering the blinds. “But they’re going to try to capture at  _ least  _ one of us. And the Association told them that they’re allowed to injure and cripple, as long as we don’t die.” Tooru’s blood runs cold. 

“And they’re bringing Tokyo too” Kuroo says grimly, crossing his arms. “The Nekoma and Fukurodani groups. I hate them even more now. They’re sending only  _ teenagers  _ to take down a group of villains that even adults couldn’t kill” he spits. 

“Shiratorizawa, Aoba Johsai, Karasuno, Fukurodani, and Nekoma” Keiji says. “Those are the five forces they have assigned this mission too. We will have to injure some of them in order to make it out safely. Some of them saw you fight higher ranked heroes. It would be suspicious if we barely fight them and allow ourselves to be injured.” Tooru rubs his face, sliding down the wall. He leans his head against Daichi’s shoulder and nearly immediately feels the other’s warm mind reaching out to his. He lets Daichi in, his mind immediately overcome by a soothing feeling, tongue tingling with the taste of milkbread, the scents that enter his nose smelling like home. 

“Omi and I are going to talk to the yakuza we’re friendly with when we get back” Tetsurou says, as if collaborating with the mafia was something every honor roll high schooler does. “A fake gangwar too close to HQ will definitely bring some of the stronger heroes to protect the main headquarters. While they’re doing that, we’re going to infiltrate one of their labs. Akaashi found us a hidden entrance, since the labs aren’t connected to any main buildings in order to stay discrete.” Kiyoomi nods from his corner. “Then we’re going to give non-personal files to the restaurant, give them to Takehashi. You guys remember Takahashi, right?”

“He makes the mochi” Wakatoshi says from the bed. “Who also happens to be one of the underbosses.”

“Correcto” Tetsurou says with a snap of the fingers. “He’ll bring it back to the kumicho- the battle should of suddenly ended for some strange reason. And then the dismantling of the upper echelon of the Heroes Association will begin.” 

Tooru furrows his brow. 

“Tetsu, as much as I love you, that was too fast. Can you summarize that?”

“We will be collaborating with the yakuza who own your favorite Tokyo restaurant as well as the other group we are friendly with in order to steal priority Association files and distribute them to quicken our plan of exposing the Association’s corruption.” Keiji clicks something with the mousepad, nods at the screen, and then closes it. He stands up, brushing the seat of his pants with the back of his hand. 

“But we were going to start the plan next month!”

“From what we heard, if we stuck to the plan, most of us would already be exposed and our plan would be impossible to complete.” Daichi rubs his face and Tooru feels a brush of exhaustion which isn’t his own.

“Prefectural preliminaries are scheduled to occur in two weeks” Wakatoshi points out. “The divisions from our respective schools will thus restrict the amount and severity of the mission they will accept.” 

“True. You two should be more careful. Karasuno is going to go to Nationals this year.” And just like that, the conversation flips around and goes to the one thing that helps hold them together: volleyball. 

“Hah, you losers with only one school allowed to go. I think we already know which three teams will be going to Nationals… again.” Tetsurou muses. Tooru rolls and kicks the middle blocker in the ribs. 

* * *

“Iwaizumi. I think I found something.” Iwaizumi looks up from his seat to look at Hanamaki. He holds out a single piece of paper. “Yaku sent it to me to give to you, being the unofficial co-leader of our network or whatever. Iwaizumi nods and takes the paper. Most of it is white but in the center is a grey-scale printout of a photo of a newspaper. The date it has tells him that it’s from over a decade ago. 

**Tokyo News : Daycare student emerges with dangerous powers**

_ This morning, Hashimoto daycare was the victim to one of the most dangerous things that could happen: power emergence. Unlike quirks, which are always developed between the ages five to ten, powers tend to emerge at a younger age. At Hashimoto daycare center, an unnamed child (the daycare guidelines list that maximum age of acceptance is the age of six) had their powers emerge. These powers are rank one and were uncontrolled. The child caused an earthquake to suddenly occur, followed by rain inside of the building, then a lightning strike which injured two people. One child was killed after being crushed by a bookshelf during the earthquake. The power emergee’s mother picked them up before authorities could arrive and detain the child. Please call the Heroes Association if you see a boy from the age two to six with black hair and green eyes.  _

Iwaizumi’s eyes widen. He drops the paper and lunges for his notebook. He quickly flips until he lands on the pages he has about Arashi:  _ black hair, green eyes; weather (element) manipulation; cases have shown that his powers are not only linked to atmospheric weather, but also with geological disasters such as earthquakes up to a magnitude of 6.2. _

He drops the notebook back onto his desk and looks back at the article clipping. Then he looks back at Hanamaki. 

“So?” The pastel haired teen asks. “Is it him?” Iwaizumi swallows, veins suddenly lit with adrenaline. 

“Text Yaku to ask him when’s the soonest I can travel over to his place. We need to find out what this kid’s name is.” Iwaizumi looks back at the printout. “He should be either sixteen or seventeen.” Which means he was right

* * *

The sound of guns going off as well as the screams of people running off the street can be heard. The sound of glass breaking, or people shouting, of cars skidding around and sirens in the distance. 

“We have ten minutes.  _ Go _ .” Kiyoomi says, pulling up the mask and pulling the hood over his head. Since he doesn’t care that much about clothing choice, as long as its clean, he gave Keiji the position of designing his suit about a month ago. The standard plain black with boots, thin but durable gloves with metal embedded into the knuckles, sleeves long with a light hooded jacket as well. The accents on his suit are a dark grey, almost blending in with the black. He jumps down with Kuroo from the roof of the building as they watch the chaos breaking out in the streets below them. He savors the feeling of the wind against his body, jacket flapping around him, not a single trace of fear in him. 

If there’s one thing this group had to have in order to make it this far, it’s trust. 

He doesn’t feel the bottom of his feet meet concrete or his bones shadow. The wind disappears and his body is instead enveloped by a strange chill. A few moments later, he’s stepping out of a wall. It’s certainly disorienting but he doesn’t focus too much. Instead, he focuses on the man in a white labcoat who stands in front of him, holding a tray of glass items. 

_ He’s going to drop it and then try to run _ he deduces. Since his power isn’t defensive or offensive, he had to practice using a weapon. Because there is no way he is fighting hand to hand with strangers unless necessary, even with the gloves and every inch of his skin except for his shadowed upper face and a small patch just below his jaw. 

Tetsurou has already landed a kick on someone before melting into the shadows again, tackling another scientist before they could lift their phone up. Kiyoomi takes out the small metal cylinder, which with a push of a button, quickly become a long bo staff. 

_ Recent surgery, right ribs _ . That’s where he hits and the man crumples onto the floor with a scream before he kicks him in the side of the head with just the right enough force to knock him out without any permanent injury. Another person tries to leave through the secured door, but they’re also quick to be taken down.

“Okay, lets get anything we can” Tetsurou says, unslinging the messenger bag from his shoulder. Kiyoomi nods and uses his staff to break open the file cabinet, taking out the drawers and putting them on the table. He starts flipping through them while Tetsurou hunts for any other information. 

“Find anything?” Tetsurou asks, quickly flickering from one end of the room to the other. Kiyoomi’s brow furrows. 

“They’re doing weird things” He says, quickly dumping files into the messenger bag, throughout information such as material inventory to the ground but putting information like receipts and money transfers in the bag. “There’s no real focus. It’s like they’re trying to get at something but they don’t know what.”

“The yakuza guys will figure it out for us” Tetsurou says, rolling a body over to get the files that were underneath them. He flips through them while turning around to walk back to Kiyoomi. “Ugh. This stuff is-” Kiyoomi looks up when Tetsurou stops talking. “LOOK OUT!” Kiyoomi feels the slightest pressure on his head before his hood is pulled down and something is plunged into the back of his neck, exposed from how he’s bent over the files.

Kiyoomi quickly turns around, clenching his fist like how Wakatoshi taught him to, and swings it in a way that takes advantage of his flexible wrists straight at the guy’s face. He doesn’t even have time to dodge, crumpling like a sack of potatoes, but not before Kiyoomi takes the syringe from the man’s loosened hand. He doesn’t watch him fall, the thump of his head on the tile being the only indicator. 

“Hey, are you okay? What happened?” Tetsurou asks, not touching or pulling his mask down, but his eyes tell him everything. Kiyoomi hands the syringe to him. There’s still a bit of liquid inside of it. 

“I’m fine” Kiyoomi waves him off, taking the files from the other’s free hand, stuffing it into the bag before latching it, not even looking to see what it’s contents are. The bad is heavy and the strap digs into his shoulder, weighing down on his body. 

“No you’re not” Tetsurou says. And the older boy is right. His body feels… tingly. Like the slight burn of a few layers of toner except upped and all over his body. It feels so uncomfortable and weird. His eyes are also pulsing. Like his heartbeat moved to them and it’s causing the world to blur. Everything is already starting to feel hotter. 

“I’m grabbing your arm, alright? And we’re going, right now.” The pressure on his arm  _ hurts _ but he bears through it. Tetsurou leads him through the haze and into a shadow, and he’s soon enveloped by the cold and it’s so  _ soothing _ . 

In the cold, there is some flashes of warmth. And each times he feels the warmth, it hurts even more. 

“You got this, you got this. Hang on, come on.” 

He likes the darkness. There isn’t anything to be blurred, there is no warmth, only the soothing cold. But much too quickly it’s hot again and he has to stop himself from screaming, a moan exiting his lips. 

“You’re sweating, oh my gods that’s bad that’s bad that’s bad.” 

Kiyoomi doesn’t know how much time has passed. He isn’t even taken out of his suit, only his mask is removed, before he’s dragged somewhere and then lifted from the ground, only to be lowered into water. He opens his eyes (when did he close him?) and is greeted with Tetsurou’s worried face. 

“What’s going on? Tell me what’s happening?” The teen pleads. Kiyoomi blinks at him and then looks down at the water with a herculean amount of effort. 

“S’hot.”

“Is it still hot?”

“Yes.”

The next thing he knows, there is  _ ice  _ in the tub and it finally feels nice. Kiyoomi sighs in relief, trying to get as much of his body as possible in the water. And then it hits him that this is ice water. That he feels normal in a bath. Filled with ice. And he hates the snow and ice. 

Even though it  _ burns _ , he sits up the tub, panting with the effort it takes. 

“What’s going on?” Kiyoomi demands. His voice comes out as a weak rasp. At some point, Tetsurou has brought the messenger bag, papers stacked on the bathroom floor. How much time has passed? In Tetsurou’s other hand is a syringe which he recognizes as the one that caused all of this. He can’t see his expression with how blurred everything is. 

“This serum” Tetsurou says. His voice is too loud. “There’s not much about it, I think it was still in its early stages. I don’t know  _ what  _ sort of things have been cooking up down here but it’s supposed to overstimulated a powered heroes powers, basically destroying them from the inside out.” Kiyoomi swallows to get the little spit in his mouth to moisten his dry throat. 

“I have a quirk” Kiyoomi says. Tetsurou nods. 

“Exactly. I” he hesitates and bows his head. His hair looks like an afro with how blurred everything is. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. Either you die or… you live. But I don’t know what the side effects would be if you survived.”’

Kiyoomi closes his eyes.  _ If  _ he survived. 

“Call Motoya.” 

“But he’s a hero!” Tetsurou exclaims. “How do I explain-”

“He’s just a speedster. He left the Association on his own a month ago because he was almost killed.” He tries to meet Tetsurou’s eyes but his own can’t even find them in the strange blur of his face, like the faceless people in the background of live recordings. When he opens his eyes, the papers and Tetsurou are gone. 

He closes his eyes and sinks under the water. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, hypothetically, if Sakusa were to get a superpower, what cool power would it be?
> 
> Horsemen/"Villains":  
> Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
> Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
> Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
> Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
> Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation
> 
> Behind-the-scene-Horsemen:  
> Sakusa - can see and is aware of the smallest details; works as their informant and his place is basically their safe-house  
> Sukehiro-sama - underground doctor and healer
> 
> Heroes:  
> Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
> Iwaizumi / Moteo - teleportation via touch (learning to make things teleport without touching)  
> Kenma / Slink - invisibility  
> Lev / Geroy(герой) - elastic limbs  
> Hanakami / Don - ferrokinesis (metal manipulation)  
> Matsukawa / Kabe - skin to metal  
> Nishinoya / Thunder - superspeed w/ complimentary accelerated healing  
> Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers  
> Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
> Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
> Yaku / Healer - can heal someone and feel their emotions, mood, power when healing  
> Tendou / Creeper - can climb walls, super flexible, strong but very light bones  
> Semi / Psi -object phasing
> 
> Others:  
> Asahi - (P) hero ally; retractable forearm length metal claws, enhanced hearing+smell, superfast healing factor (wolverine basically)  
> Kiyoko - (P) hero ally; hydrokinesis  
> Atsumu - (P) hero ally; persuasion/manipulation (limited mind control), surface feelings empath, enhanced stealth  
> Osamu - (P) hero ally; Teleportation (less powerful than Iwa):  
> Ennoshita - (P) hero ally; empath and lie/truth detection  
> Akiteru - (P) hero ally; temporary power absorption (rogue, basically, except better)  
> Motoya - (P) superspeed


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> >> _Komori Motoya_ has entered the chat  
> >> _Sakusa Kiyoomi_ has modified his details  
> >> _Iwaizumi Hajime_ has has commented:"I'm THIS close to getting one of the Horsemen"  
> >> _Oikawa Tooru_ has replied to _Iwaizumi HajimeSIKE_!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made myself write a new chapter and publish it before allowing myself to start my AP Bio homework

“Oh. I see.” Komori Motoya blinks at Kuroo Tetsurou. He’s seen this guy before- practice matches, newspapers, TV, wanted posters and Hero Association warrants. He barely knows Kuroo himself, but  _ Erebus _ … He knows him without really knowing him. And right now, as of this moment, his cousin who he loves like his own brother is fighting death. Only Komori can go into the bathroom where they put Kiyoomi in now, and that’s only if he uses his superspeed to vibrate fast enough to fight off the bone-deep chill. 

And Kiyoomi...he looked horrible. At first, he thought all the water had been drained from the tub, but it turns out it only turned into ice. And even with that, Kiyoomi was still sweating, the sweat quickly turning into little drops of ice wuich would make light tinkling sounds as they well onto the frozen over surface. He wanted to touch him, but if sweat instantly turned to water, he doesn’t think his finger would be in the same state it was before if he were to touch him. And he wanted to give him comfort, he wanted to so badly, but….he knows the right thing to do it let him be. 

Komori...he’s fine with the Horsemen now. He was skeptical at first because in order to be a good hero or villain, you have to be good at keeping your two personas separate. He thought that Kuroo was trying to trick him into doing  _ something _ . But then he realized that Kuroo, he’s not a good villain. He’s not a good hero. Because he and the Horsemen are neither of those. They’re something that no word other than the title they chose for their group can describe. Their two worlds, they blended together. Komori hadn’t been able to hold back the smile when he realized the reason Sakusa had gotten into that week-long educational program in Miyagi in the first place was because his team, the Horsemen, had wanted to spend time with him. 

When Kuroo confessed who he was and how Kiyoomi fits into all of this, he felt betrayed, at first. Why did Kiyoomi never tell him? But Kuroo eventually got to explaining why. 

“Are you sure there’s nothing we can do?” Komori asks for the nth time. Kuroo shakes his head. 

“I’m sorry. These papers...even though I’m pretty decent at chemistry, it looks like all they did was throw random things together. I want Kiyoomi to make it through just as much as you want to.” A vibrating noise sounds. Kuroo quickly sticks his hand in his pocket. He nods to himself. 

“I’m trusting you not to do anything” Kuroo warns, pulling up his hood and mask. “I have to go pick up the others now. Daichi’s the telepath-”

“Azrael” Komori immediately says. He wonders about the other four, how the other Horsemen look like. Probably high school students as well, but are they tough and scary? Do they look like delinquents? Piercing? Yakuza affiliation tattoos?

“Yeah. He might be able to figure out what’s going on in Sakusa’s mind. And I really...he’s going to make it through this.” Kuroo stands up and squeezes Komori’s shoulder. If Komori had any doubts about him, the little there had been disappears. His eyes are warm, his grip firm but not tight. And he thinks:

_ What is wrong with our world, to allow  _ **_children_ ** _ to fight the wars adults don’t want to? _

Kuroo draws his mask up, pulling his hood over his head. With a quick run and a swish of his coat, he melts into the shadows splayed across the wall. 

He watches the wall. Only for a few more seconds. Then he closes his eyes and takes his phone out. He knows he shouldn’t be doing this, and he won’t be telling the truth or lying, per say, but…

He deserves to know. 

Komori taps through his contacts before his finger stops, eyes focusing on the kanji. His thump hovers over the button and before he could have any regrets, he presses the right button so that he opens the messaging app rather than opening a call. Walking backwards until the back of his legs hit the couch, he sits, resting his elbows on his knees. 

**Motoya: I need to talk to you. I can’t call though.**

The message takes him less than two seconds to type, even with the amount of times he has to click the keypad to get the right hiragana character to pop up. 

**Miya (A): OK**

**Miya (A): About what?**

**Motoya: I just wanted to tell you that Kiyoomi really does think of you as a friend. You really don’t know how much it means to him to have someone who both respects his boundaries while also treating him like a normal human being** . 

It takes Atsumu a little longer to reply to that, but Komori has to hold back a laugh when he gets his message. 

**Atsumu: Well that was random. And that was fast but your speedster. Did Omi really say that? How sweet :D Is that all?**

Komori hesitates. He knows, what Atsumu feels for his cousin, and he doesn’t want to break anyone’s trust. But if he doesn’t….he’s going down a different path now. 

**Motoya: Have a good day, Atsumu**

He flips his phone close and leans back against the back of the couch, looking up at the ceiling. His heart thuds in his chest. He feels the tear well in his eyes. 

Once upon a time, he was just like every other hero: he wanted to save people, he admits he wanted the money and the fame a slight bit, he wanted to be able to freely use his power without being asked what good he’s going to do with it. But when he got injured, nearly killed not even a month ago, it was like something changed inside him. 

When he looked down from the hospital window, he saw people he knows in passing in costume allow crimes to go away. He watched one ignore the hand of an outstretched girl as she probably was trying to look for her mother. Another one pushing a homeless man away from the sidewalk and into an alleyway. 

He wondered that if there’s people like him, there must be people who also aren’t like him. The people who are here for the money and fame, the people who treat it like a job, like a burden, like something to flaunt maybe. People who don’t really  _ care  _ outside of the faux world they try to live in. 

Just like Kuroo had, when Sawamura, Azrael, entered the scene Komori’s expectations had once again been defied. There was something gentle about him, with his large warm eyes, nice looking face, and the worry that clearly shined in his eyes. Even though he was shorter than all of them, the one in the bathtub included, Komori knows that Sawamura is dangerous…

Just not to them. 

“Get Wakatoshi, Tooru, and Keiji too” Sawamura tells Kuroo. “I can’t-” he swallows “I want to be able to, but I can’t guarantee anything.” Kuroo nods, quickly disappearing. Sawamura looks at Komori, smiling at him and giving him a friendly nod. Komori suddenly feels very relaxed. The couch feels like it’s enveloping him and before he knows it, the fear is gone, the worry is gone, and he sleeps. 

* * *

Daichi _? _

_ Daichi opens his eyes. He still feels the cold from the bathroom but now it’s paired with a blistering head that fights to peel the skin from his face.  _

_ Every time he enters Kiyoomi’s mind, it’s different. Everyone’s minds change but not as drastically as Kiyoomi’s does, probably because of his awesome memory and the amount of small details he has stored in there.  _

Hello Kiyoomi

_ The other teen is sitting on the ground, skin half covered in sweat and a sort of frost. When they make eye contact, Daichi feels a wave of relief run through him. He walks closer to Kiyoomi before sitting down in front of him. Even though it’s a weird hot-cold in his mind, Kiyoomi himself doesn’t radiate any of that.  _

_ He looks around the headspace. Usually there’s organization things of sorts, like file cabinets, maybe a chair or two, random memoirs and volleyballs. But now, it’s all blank, just a continuous darkness with something sticking out of the walls at random places. Daichi looks up and he can see it coming from above too, like stalagmites. _

You see them too?

_ Yeah. Daichi frowns. Have you tried seeing what they are? He looks back at Kiyoomi. The teen shakes his head. The exhaustion is visible, even in his mind.  _

I can’t seem to move from here. But I think they’re important

I’ll go see, then

_ Daichi gets up, walking towards the wall. The distance seems to grow between himself and the wall but he reaches out with his hand, concentrating, and the increase in distance stops.  _

_ It’s knives.  _

_ There are knives sticking out, most of the blade in and hilt out. He looks another knife, and sees that it’s slightly different in design- all of them are. He walks along the wall and slowly that turns into a jog and then into a run. Weapons. Arrows, axes, swords- all of them impaled into the sides of Kiyoomi’s mind. But it doesn’t feel like they’re doing him any harm. Besides being weapons and thus dangerous, the only similarity they all have is in looks. Pitch black hilt and an equally dark blade, except the shine on the blades are an eerie icy electric blue that makes Daichi’s skin prickle.  _

_ And then he smiles.  _

Kiyoomi! _ He calls out, running back towards his friend.  _ Can I touch you?  _ Kiyoomi looks up at him for a few long seconds. He looks even worse than he had before. With a burst of herculean effort, Kiyoomi raises a shaking hand. Daichi grabs onto it and forces himself not to flinch back from how cold he is, drawing his arm across his shoulders and nearly dragging the teen towards the closest wall. Instead of the distance growing farther, it now seems to come closer faster than the pace they’re moving at _

_ Pull one out Daichi says. Kiyoomi’s coal black eyes are focused on the weapon in front of him. As he reaches towards it, he sees his eyes glint the same unearthly blue on the blades, flickering over them like withering flashes of lightning.  _

_ Kiyoomi’s hand closes over the hilt, the shaking that was in his hand now gone. And then he pulls.  _

* * *

It was quick to get used to Ushijima, Akaashi, and Oikawa’s presence along with Kuroo’s. He wasn’t as worried as he was before. Sure, it was still there, but now it’s accompanied by confidence. These people, they actually care for Kiyoomi. He’s met Ushijima before at the youth camp last year, and he’s also a friend of Kiyoomi’s. He wonders when they actually met for the first time. He’s also realized that now there are things he doesn’t know about his cousin, his brother, but he understands the need for secrecy. 

It’s been three hours since Sawamura went to Kiyoomi- he hasn’t come out yet. He apparently napped like a baby for a full hour before being woken up by Kuroo because “they couldn’t talk properly with him sleeping.”

Honestly, it feels like Komori’s walked right into a fairytale of some sort. Or he’s the female protagonist of some young adult novel. 

Ushijima- he already knew he was kind- is kinder than he thought he was before. He’s gentle too, as is obvious with the way he demonstrates his power, a little sapling seeming to manifest out of thin air, one of its roots curling around the ace’s little finger before it’s leaves stretch out towards Komori like a flower to the sun. 

Oikawa….Komori wants to be friends with that guy because he’s sure the two of them would be awesome at teasing the hell out of Kiyoomi when he wakes up. Komori wasn’t able to talk to the guy for that long because he turned into a cat about an hour ago and curled up in front of the bathroom door and hasn’t moved since then. 

Akaashi is quiet, pretty, and too polite to even exist. On another note, he’s also a good setter which is a bonus too. 

It was at this time that quite suddenly Oikawa springs up from in front of the doorway, stumbling back to them, turning into a human in less than a second. 

“He’s up! He’s up! He’s up!” He exclaims like a smol child. The bathroom door opens and Daichi walks out first, looking tired but happy. Behind him comes Kiyoomi, pieces of ice that were stuck to his wet clothes falling or melting off as he walks, arms wrapped around himself. 

“Kiyoomi!” Komori exclaims, rushing towards his cousin. 

“Motoya-” Kiyoomi starts but Komori has already wrapped his arms around his cousin-

Before flinching away from his a second later. 

“Ah! You’re so cold! And what’s that you have there?”

Kiyoomi shrugs. “A knife.” He unfolds his arms and hands it to Komori. Komori turns it, letting out a low whistle. Where did it come from? It’s  _ beautiful _ , pitch black with a comfortable hilt made out of who-knows-what, the light catching on the blade not making it shine white or something, but an entrancing and eerie blue. 

Kiyoomi sits on the couch, not even shivering even though he basically just took an ice bath. He does look exhausted, as if he pulled three all-nighters in a row. He leans forward and takes the file that Kuroo had gone over Komori with after he picked up Ushijima, Oikawa, and Akaashi. He flips through the papers, making sure they barely touch his finger tips before closing it and setting it back on the table. Nobody says a word. 

“Soooo” Oikawa says with a frown. “I thought you were dying.”

“I was” Kiyoomi says “But I’m fine fine.” His eyes glint blue? And the knife is suddenly gone from Motoya’s hand. He lets out a yelp. “The casualty rate is because an external source was needed to complete the serums process, to allow it to run its course better. Daichi-kun was able to help me out.”

“It’s supposed to give people powers, that was right” Daichi smiles. “Personal cryokinesis and- what did you call it?” 

“Telumkenisis. The ability to manipulate weaponry. It is similar to Wakatoshi-kun’s power except instead of plants, it is with weaponry. As for the cryokinesis...it is quite useless.” Kiyoomi shrugs. “I am limited to it only affecting myself. I can make my skin cold or exhale frost- chose one of the two.” He drawls. For having just gained two powers, of which one of them sounds wicked cool, he doesn’t really show it. Must be the exhaustion. 

“Do you still have your quirk? The observation one?” Akaashi asks. His eyes, on the other hand, are bright with interest. Kiyoomi nods. Kuroo lets out a whistle. 

“Can you-” the red-clad villain cuts himself off, eyes widening at the knife that hovers in front of his face. Kiyoomi smiles. 

“You never told me having a power would be so fun. It feels...strange, though.”

“It’s because it’s matter manipulation- you’re body’s not used to that sort of control yet. You’ll adapt, though” Akaashi says with a gentle look on his face. 

“Wait- does this mean Omi-chan can join us on the field now?” Oikawa exclaims. Komori looks at Kiyoomi, wondering what his cousin’s expression would be like. He knows that Kiyoomi has been trained by the rest of the group and knows how to hold his own, but never really takes part in the fights that always come on the news. 

It’s only his superspeed that allows Komori to see the look of joy on his cousins face before it turns blank and a bit sad. Sakusa shakes his head. 

“Someone’s needs to be able to manage things and help out behind the scenes. I cannot let that important position no longer be filled.”

But Motoya knows his cousin better. There’s a reason he’s the number one ace in the country- he likes to do things. He likes to take do something, to take control but not full control. So sure, he’s doing something on the side, helping out the Horsemen, but not doing as much as someone in the field, someone who’s actually fighting the battles. It’s like how even though middle blockers can score points and keep them from coming, it’s the ace who makes most of them. 

“Why not?” Komori asks. “Kiyoomi, you’ve trained. You can fight. And now you have a power. You  _ can  _ go into the field.” Then he addresses all of the Horsemen. “If you would allow me, I have no intention of going into the field anymore, but I would like to be this side-line person that Kiyoomi previously filled the position of. I may not have his gift with details and stuff, but I do have superspeed, which could be useful in a bunch of situations if you suddenly need backup.” He stops himself before he can stop rambling and folds his hands, hoping that it helps make his offer seem more pleasing instead of making himself look passive aggressive. He can feel Kiyoomi’s stare. 

“Oho?” Kuroo cups his chin, tilting his head. “I mean...telumkinesis, right? Weapon manipulation. That would be very useful, especially if we can find out if you can do more than create weapons, maybe even weaken the enemies weaponry? And a speedster on the comms…”

“Motoya” Kiyoomi says. “This, this is dangerous. You shouldn’t-”

“Well you are, why can’t I?” Komori raises an eyebrow. “It’s a benefit to have one more person in the field. There’s more of you, and if one of you falls, then you can quickly fill in the gap. It’s just like volleyball- a six person team is always preferred over a five person team.” He places a hand on Kiyoomi’s shoulder, making sure he doesn’t touch skin. “Plus- you want to. I say the excitement on your face.” Kuroo snickers. Daichi chuckles. 

“I don’t see a problem. You don’t mean us any harm and you care about Kiyoomi. Maybe that’ll make you even better at your job.” 

Sakusa wrinkles his nose. “But then we’ll have to spend more money because I’ll need a uniform-”

“Taken care of. Loaded parents, remember?” Kuroo grins. “Now, we should introduce you quickly- the InterHigh’s coming up- it’ll be a good two weeks to suddenly go off the radar and screw with the Association. So, you’re in” he points at Komori “and you’re good” he points at Kiyoomi. Then he claps his hands together. “Perfect! Now, come on Sakusa- we gotta get you that uniform.”

“I’m tired. Can I-”

“Nope” Kuroo cuts him off. “No can do- work now, talk later.” Akaashi frowns. 

“Kuroo-san” Kuroo flinches “Kiyoomi did just, how would you describe it? Got injected by drugs, nearly died, and is now overpowered? Perhaps he should rest.”

“ _ Thank you _ ” Kiyoomi says. Kuroo groans. 

“Fiiiine.” Then he looks at Komori. “But  _ you _ , on the other hand,” he suddenly feels very secluded and targeted “I gotta introduce you to your new job.”

_ Two days later. . . _

Thunderbolt Max. Hero. Originally from the Yamaguchi Prefecture but moved to Tokyo for unknown reasons (private “invitation” from the Tokyo branch of the Heroes Association). He’s one of the few well known heroes who don’t have a power but a quirk. His is that he can create electricity from his feet. His own self-made tech enabled him to amplify the electricity created so that he can control the output from specially made boots and also blast it from his hands thanks to a metal armor-like uniform. 

He’s also quite the snob. The people he rescues, he also expects them to pay after he’s saved them. Even after helping out the police, the department has to pay him a certain amount. 

So it’s fun to watch when instead of getting the money, the lady he just saved, just looks even more scared, hand withdrawing form her purse, and runs in the opposite direction. Erebus snickers from the shadows. Arashi lets out a curt  _ shh! _

“What the-” Thunderbolt Max starts, turning around. He cuts himself off and is forced to look up a few centimeters. 

“I would suggest you not complete that sentence with anything vile.” 

Standard all black pants, boots, top, and mask. None of his skin is visible, eyes glinting a creepy blue. In his hand he casually balances a sword, pitch black like his clothes with the same shine in his eyes. It’s pointed at the space between Thunderbolt Max’s eyes. His height is accented by his cropped hooded jacket, a single continuous thin streak of frosty electric blue running up the sides of his legs, shirt, jacket, and down the top of the jacket sleeves to the top of his gloved middle finger. 

“Speedy, how’re you doing?” Azrael whispers- it helps to talk a loud while trying to communicate telepathically to someone he still isn’t that mentally close with. 

_ No reinforcements  _ comes the reply in all of their minds.  _ He’s all alone _ . 

“Who are you?” Thunderbolt Max says, trying to act strong. His voice cracks. Arashi lets out a muffled cough. “Are you- are you a villain? I can give you anything! Money, women-” 

“I’m not interested in those.”

“Then-”

“We’re here to send a message.” The sword barely taps against his skin and a small bead of blood come out. “The Horsemen, we aren’t going to be standing down anytime soon. Send as many heroes as you want, we’ll take all of them down. Just know we don’t mean to hurt anyone- no civilians, no heroes or superheroes who don’t deserve it.” Thunderbolt Max gulps and swallows. He nods, only to yelp when he scratches his skin against the sword. Kodama calmly claps a hand over Erebus’s masked mouth to keep his laughter from being heard. 

“A-a-and who are you? Y-you aren’t Azrael or Arashi or Loki or Erebus or Kodama.”

“Too many “or”s- you must of failed grammar. So grammar failure man- you can call me Ronin. Now go before it’s more than your face that gets scratched up.” As Thunderbolt Max runs, Ronin smiles under his mask. 

_ That was fun  _ he thinks. In his mind, the laughter of six others resonate. He remembers when it was Wakatoshi who would tell him what was going on with the Horsemen. Then he remembers when he met Daichi before being introduced to the rest of the Horsemen. They grew to become friends, he and the Horsemen. They became closer over time. But Sakusa always felt a little left out, never being in te field or anything. 

And now that he’s out here. Now that Motoya has also joined them...it feels less like a group of friends and more like family. A sparrow lands on his shoulder, eyes shining with intelligence. He doesn’t mind. 

_Elsewhere_ _some time later_. . .

“What is it?” Iwaizumi asks, looking up from where he’d been looking over reports with Yaku, Semi,, Sugawara, and a girl named Kaori from Fukurodani. It’s not the first time he’s wondered why all the heroes he knows he also knows from volleyball, but eh. Owlman couldn’t come so Kaori, AKA Monarch, came in his place. Her powers are also pretty cool, being hypnosis. 

“S-s-sorry, Iwa-chan” Oikawa pants. Iwaizumi feels his heart soften. He really does love Oikawa so so  _ so  _ much. “B-but- Look!” He shoves a paper- a printed out article- towards Iwaizumi. His eyes narrow as he reads it over, eyes widening and jaw dropping. 

“What is it?” Yaku asks. 

“There’s another one of them” Iwaizumi says “There’s a sixth Horsemen.” And he drops the paper with an official artist’s sketch, mostly black with shadowing in dark grey, the only color being a glint of electric blue that reminds Iwaizumi of a true blue moon on a pitch black starless night. 

He closes his eyes. 

And then he smiles. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did you like that? Next chapter will probably be either the superheroes POV, something else, but I'm pretty sure it'll either take place before the interhigh if it's only the heroes POV or after the interhigh (immediately) for both hero and Horsemen POVs
> 
> As always, suggestions and requests are welcome 🙃


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heroes take one step forward and force the Horsemen to take one step back....
> 
> But at what cost?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AKA The chapter no one, including myself, saw coming  
> Written while listening to the JJBA theme Overdrive on loop:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XneukMwAGL8

_ Two weeks after qualifiers for the Spring Interhigh. . . _

  
  


Even after the Interhigh they can’t catch a break. Being a good, hero-like villain requires lots of time and effort. Especially since it’s just the seven of them versus a few  _ thousand _ . 

“Leviathan” Motoya says through the mind link Daichi set up. Motoya, Keijji, Daichi, and Tooru are camped out at Daichi’s house while Kiyoomi, Wakatoshi, and Tetsurou go to confront the hero. “Be wary of her wind powers. Ushijima, make sure you cause a ruckus so that she targets you only, since your powers have the longest range. Kiyoomi, you’re going to have to make sure none of them get to close. It may be just the three of you but those are your friends who you’re going to be fighting. And Kuroo-”

“Yeah yeah yeah, I know” Kuroo’s thoughts reverberate through all of their minds, snarky as ever. “I have the least blockable power. So I have to be careful and be the one to take Leviathan down. Such a lame name too.” Wakatoshi’s light chuckle follows soon after. 

“Who have they sent?” Wakatoshi asks. “At the moment, we are currently fending off” images of people run through each of their minds. Nishinoya, Tendou, Semi, Goshiki. 

“Umm” Motoya’s fingers fly over the keyboard. “Sugawara is just around the corner with Tsukishima, I think.”

Leviathan, unlike the other superheroes they have hunted down, is surprisingly clever and until recently was unknown to them as being corrupt. Her form of corruption is being hired to frame innocent people as villains and then go and hunt them down. Her dual control over wind and being able to turn her skin into crystal make her a formidable opponent, but they’ve had tougher...but with tougher opponents, from what Motoya has observed and read, always leaves the Horsemen with more than a few injuries. 

He watches through the eyes of Daichi, who watches through the eyes of Tetsurou, Wakatoshi, and Kiyoomi somehow at the same time without confusing any of them. It’s a very cool and unique experience. He watches as the two other heroes arrive, and then Iwaizumi not a minute later. He watches the fight grow more intense, and then Iwaizumi teleports right as Leviathan is crystalized but is slapped onto the ground, and then-

Collective panic and shock floods through all of their minds. 

* * *

They appeared again one by one after the end of the Interhigh preliminaries. It made Iwaizumi laugh because of  _ course _ . How could he not connect the dots before? This pattern, it’s so  _ clear now _ . Every single year, numerous times a year. 

After Seijoh’s loss to  _ Karasuno  _ of all places, Iwaizumi had thrown himself back into his investigations (college exam prep is for later). Oikawa, surprisingly enough, took the loss surprisingly well. The smile he had given Sawamura from across the net once the ball landed on their side for the final time wasn’t a smile of resignation, wasn’t anything fake. No, it was a real smile. And Sawamura had smiled back. 

That made Iwaizumi feel jealous. But his heart softened when he realized that what that meant was that Oikawa wasn’t going to break down over their loss. And the jealously only rose again when during the next round of matches, against the team in salmon pink and white, Sawamura had a serious collision from what Iwaizumi was able to tell. It caused Oikawa to suddenly jump up in his seat, worry written across his face. Iwaizumi had been able to get him to calm down and sit again. He had to repeat in his mind that Oikawa loves him. Sure, they’re not dating, but when has that ever been a necessity? It just forces people to act more romantic and gross, to have to spend time which they don’t want to. Love should just be love- it shouldn’t be controlled by a title. 

And then Karasuno went and beat Shiratorizawa. 

Iwaizumi continued his research. 

Alright, back to what he discovered. 

They already know that Erebus is a high schooler. That was one of their biggest leads, no matter how small of a lead it actually is. And since it’s the end of his high school volleyball career, it’s volleyball which is on his mind quite often for now. And that’s how he was able to see it.

Miya, along with the rest of Northern Japan, have their qualifiers on the same day. Other prefectures have it a few days a later. Tokyo, on the other hand, two days before. 

Erebus, Kodama, and the new member who put more pressure on Iwaizumi, Ronin, were the first two to return after their short hiatus. Then Arashi. The day after Karasuno’s victory, Loki. And almost a week after that, their ringleader Azrael. 

And that was when Iwaizumi called the Hero Association’s information department. A few minutes later, he got a new document in his email, a list of all of the Horsemens’ sightings. Quickly printing out a calendar of October of this year, last year, and the year before. It takes him twenty minutes but he marks down the date of the spring interhigh qualifiers in Miyagi and Tokyo the past three years. Then he marks down when the Horsemen would appear and then disappear. Then he lines the papers up, one above the other, forming neat columns. He blinks at the paper, jaw dropping. 

The pattern is the most clear he has ever seen. He feels giddy enough from that one accomplishment to go ahead and match up the timings with those of the summer and fall interhighs as well. 

In those, it’s Azrael and Loki who return first, then Arashi, Erebus, and Kodama. The only part of the pattern has been broken is Kodama, coming back first-

First. 

Nationals qualifiers. First place goes to Nationals. First places leaves  _ last _ . Which means...he thinks about all the clues he’s gotten about Arashi, his encounter with Erebus, trading information about Azrael, his immense focus on Loki. And all along, he’s not exactly been ignoring Kodama, but the guy isn’t flashy or stands out a lot. Yes, his control over plants are immense and  _ scary  _ because the speed at which they appear and how large….

The one he’s been ignoring is the one he has the most information on. If there’s one thing he’s learned through how much he has investigated, for  _ years _ , it’s to follow his gut feeling. When hints are presented, follow the trail they make and don’t stray from it. And right now, the trail is paved in gold. 

Miyagi. Kodama’s appearances and disappearances line up with Miyagi’s interhigh for sure. He doesn’t have the same confidence with Loki and Azrael though. Another thing about investigating is that he can make mistakes, he can follow a lead and make wrong conclusions. A shiver wracks up his spine as he reads over the information he has on Kodama. One person at a time. Once he gets one of them, the rest will follow _. They will follow _ . 

It’s really unnerving, the thought that the Horsemen are highschoolers, that a majority, if not all, play the same sport as him. That means he could of seen them. He could have talked to have. He could be  _ friends  _ with one of them. 

_ Kodama.  _

Only this season were they not the last to return. They lost this year. And what is the one team in Miyagi, without fail, who always win and only lost this last week?

Shiratorizawa. Kodama goes to Shiratorizawa. And just from his height…

Iwaizumi doesn’t even remember teleporting to the other side of the room, staring at the papers and notebooks on his desk, laptop screen with basic information of each of Shiratorizawa’s members on it. He sound escapes his lips, a sound that turns into a laugh. 

He used to be so hung-up on unveiling who  _ Loki  _ is. But it turns out that he’s not the villain he’s going to be unveiling. No, the one he’s going for is going to be Kodama. And he’s far from confident, no no- now he’s doubting his skills even  _ more _ . Because how,  _ how _ , is one of the most powerful people in the world the powerless, quirkless, surprisingly kind and gentle,  _ normal  _ left-handed ace Ushijima Wakatoshi?

His phone rings and Iwaizumi quickly rushes to it. His heartbeat has moved into his throat and he fight to swallow the lump that formed there. “Iwaizumi Hajime here” he automatically answers.

“Iwaizumi-kun!” The voice on the other end cheerfully exclaims. Iwaizumi’s eyebrows raise. Tendou Satori. This must be something serious. The Shiratorizawa division rarely calls him during what he assumes is a fight or battle. “We have three Horsemen on our hands. Did you forget that we had a guest from Korea, Leviathan, coming over to Miyagi? Well, turns out she’s going to be lunch meat now!” Iwaizumi mentally curses himself. How could he forget about that?

“Who’s there?” He asks, putting his phone on speaker while he quickly changes into his hero outfit, simple grey hoodie, black pants, age-softened leather boots and a strap-on mask which covers his whole face, tinted lenses covering his eyes from view but allowing him enhanced vision. 

“Hero side, we’ve got myself, Semi, Goshiki-”

“Goshiki!?” Iwaizumi interrupts, tugging on a boot. “But he’s not fully trained!”

“It’s not my fault they came only a block away from campus” Tendou says, serious for once. “We’ve also got that Tsukki kid from Karasuno, the speedster, and Sugawara. As for the Horsemen, it’s Kodama, Erebus, and the new guy, Ronin. We really need help with those weapons of his. We can’t even get close!”

“Alright. I’m ready. Give me two seconds.” He turns his phone off and pulls the mask down. A second later, he’s at the edges of a fight. 

And it’s  _ crazy _ . 

The ground is littered with craters, dead plants twisted over the tar and cracking it. A large monstrous vine almost slaps down onto him, the only thing that keeps it from crushing him being Leviathan soaring through the air and tackling it. 

“Glad you joined us!” Tendou exclaims from where he’s gracefully and creepily dodging swipes from more plants, constantly hopping to keep the vines on the ground from grabbing his ankles and rooting him. Iwaizumi nods and lets out a low growl, pulling out the retractable bo staff he has as a weapon. He teleports into the center of the fight. 

Tsukishima is with Goshiki, Goshiki struggling to get Tsukishima close to Ronin, who’s almost  _ lazily  _ fighting off their advances. Sugawara is dueling it off with Erebus, his red magic energy whatever thingie that he’s never really understood beating against the dark energy or whatever (another thing he doesn’t understand) which Erebus controls, the thick smoke-like pitch black whisps flowing off of him like steam from a hot pan. 

Nishinoya and Semi are targeting Kodama ( _ Ushijima maybe  _ his mind automatically supplies). Those two are really skilled, Nishinoya quickly dodging and landing a few hits on Kodama while also supporting the other two fights within an instance before. Another troubling thing is the  _ knives  _ which appear out of thin air out of random, which everyone has to quickly stop fighting to dodge or else risk getting impaled. 

Iwaizumi watches for a little bit longer. He has a chance. His fingers twitch and he remembers days, weeks,  _ months  _ of practicing, fine-tuning his powers to be able to target precise items from larger and large distances. 

One jump. 

He’s next to Sugawra, pulling out his bo staff and fighting besides him. It’s not going to do anything against Erebus’s whatever, but he can protect Sugawara from any stray hits from other fights. 

“Rouge” he says. “Distract him, okay?” Sugawara doesn’t flinch or look at him, focus kept on Erebus. But he nods. And suddenly his power seems twice as powerful and fast, forcing Erebus back a step. Good. That one step backward, just one, causes Ronin’s focus to waver, flickering over to Erebus. Kodama is too busy with his own.  _ I got this _ . 

Two jump. 

He’s next to Ronin and he raises his staff, quickly slamming it into Ronin’s side. Ronin quickly turns but by then, Iwaizumi is already gone; Goshiki and Tsukishima can finally advance.

Now for the prize. 

“ _ GOTCHA!”  _ He can’t help but exclaim, barely more than a meter away from Kodama. Black clothes with flashes of dark purple, eyes glowing a soft green which looks erie under the shadow of his hood. Iwaizumi raises his hand and suddenly, there’s a mask resting on top of his palm, black with a thin purple highlight on top, smooth material warmed by Kodama’s breath. 

Even with the hood covering his hair and some of his features, he still recognizes that facial structure and the look of shock from a faithful day two weeks ago. It’s the same look he saw from the stands. 

“I knew it” he can’t help but say, even as Ushijima takes a single step back, small, thin vines quickly weaving together to cover the bottom half of his face. But it’s already too late. Tendou was only a few feet away from them, and the look of shock and devastation on his face is immeasurable. 

“Wakatoshi-kun?” Tendou says, voice soft, weak, broken. Suddenly Iwaizumi feels bad, so very bad. Ushijima doesn’t say anything. Instead, he hears Sugawara shout. His head snaps to the side and Erebus is gone. 

“HOLD HIM DOWN!” Iwaizumi shouts but Ushijima is suddenly enveloped by darkness and so is Ronin, and they’re both down. Leviathan groans from where she sits up, crystal hands clinking against the tar. The plants created by Ushijima crumble around them, quickly aging before crumbling before rejoining the earth. Iwaizumi turns around. 

“Tendou-”

“I had no idea” he says, shaking his head. “I-I can’t believe. Toshi, he never told me. He doesn’t, he never” his voice breaks. “He’s always been a bad liar. When did he become so good?” He collapses onto his knees, sobbing. Semi and Goshiki quickly rush over to him. From around them, people are coming out of their houses and peeking out of windows to see the aftermath of what had happened. 

“Has he ever hinted?” Iwaizumi says. Tendou swallows and nods. 

“You don’t have to talk now” Semi says. 

“No” Tendou replies. He looks up from where he sits on the ground. “He said he doesn’t trust the Hero Association, back when I told him he wanted to join. He said that they’re corrupt, but aren’t all organizations? And they actually do good and help people, so I thought why not.”

“Ushijima-san” Goshiki whimpers. Iwaizumi internally winces. What has he done? He pretty much just destroyed years of friendship and trust with a single move. He was too confident….but this is for the greater good, right?

“Are you going to tell the Association?” Sugawara asks. Oikawa tries to imagine how he would feel like if one of his closest friends turned out to be a wanted villain, a villain wanted  _ dead _ . He tries to imagine that instead of Ushijima’s face under the mask, it was Oikawa’s. 

“No” he replies. “We...we can be selfish.”

“I agree” Sugawara nods. “I’ll tell Nishinoya and Tanaka not to report this. Only our teams and allies will know.”

“Seijoh, Karasuno, Shiratorizawa, Nekoma, and Fukurodani” Iwaizumi nods. “Thunder!” He calls out. Nishinoya is next to him within a second. “Go find the rest of the Karasuno and Seijoh heroes. Tell them that Kodama is Ushijima Wakatoshi. Tell them to be wary. Tell them that if they encounter him, do  _ not  _ act as if they know that he’s Kodama. Behave normally and get backup. Do not tell the Association of our discovery.” Nishinoya nods. There isn’t a smile on his face. So even he’s in shock. 

He wonders who wouldn’t be. 

As he speeds away, Iwaizumi helps Tendou off the ground and offers the three Shiratorizawa heroes if they would like to grab lunch with him. They agree. 

* * *

The first thing Wakatoshi does when he returns to the Sawamura household is ignore everyone’s looks in favor of sitting on the couch. He knows he fails. He knows that he messed up. He should have known that Iwaizumi would of trained himself better, would have made his powers grow stronger and become  _ more _ . 

He feels warmth on either side of him. Kiyoomi and Tooru. Daichi sits down on the floor in front of him, grabbing the remote and turning the TV on. He skips the news for an anime channel playing a shojo. Tetsurou and Motoya join Daichi on the ground, the five of them surrounding him. He realizes he hasn’t changed his clothes yet. 

_ Don’t think about it  _ Daichi’s voice whispers and comforting warmth blankets his mind, calming him down and making him feel relaxed. 

He can’t help the tears that start to silently fall for the first time in years upon remembering the devastated look on Tendou’s face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://discord.gg/sFqmZ9G  
> Relatively new and lonely server but....ughh....we're lonely  
> \----  
> Horsemen/"Villains":  
> Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
> Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
> Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
> Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
> Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation  
> Sakusa/ Ronin - can see and is aware of the smallest details; telumkinesis (creation and manipulation of weaponry, great fighting skill), limited cryokinesis  
> Behind-the-scene-Horsemen:  
> Komori - superpeed; former hero but now works as the Horsemen’s “computer-comms guy” after Sakusa had his power evolution
> 
> Heroes:  
> Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
> Iwaizumi / Moteo - teleportation with and without touch  
> Kenma / Slink - invisibility  
> Lev / Geroy(герой) - elastic limbs  
> Hanakami / Don - ferrokinesis (metal manipulation)  
> Matsukawa / Kabe - skin to metal  
> Nishinoya / Thunder - superspeed w/ complimentary accelerated healing  
> Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers  
> Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
> Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
> Yaku / Healer - can heal someone and feel their emotions, mood, power when healing  
> Tendou / Creeper - can climb walls, super flexible, strong but very light bones  
> Semi / Psi - object phasing  
> Goshiki - invulnerability
> 
> Others:  
> Asahi - (P) hero ally; retractable forearm length metal claws, enhanced hearing+smell, superfast healing factor (wolverine basically)  
> Kiyoko - (P) hero ally; hydrokinesis  
> Atsumu - (P) hero ally; persuasion/manipulation (limited mind control), surface feelings empath, enhanced stealth  
> Osamu - (P) hero ally; Teleportation (less powerful than Iwa):  
> Ennoshita - (P) hero ally; empath and lie/truth detection  
> Akiteru - (P) hero ally; temporary power absorption (rogue, basically, except better)  
> Motoya - (P) superspeed


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It isn't just Ushijima who has to deal with with a best friend but the situations couldn't have been more different

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...this one has a lot of angst. And I _really_ wanted it to be just a bunch of comfort and fluff....but.....well...I just went on a spree😅 So now, well, you get lots of angst. You can probably tell just from the summary

Ushijima stayed at home for a school week, feigning illness to keep from having to stay at the Shiratorizawa dorms while refusing all efforts his mother made to take him to the doctors. Every day, he expected heroes to burst through the door and arrest and interrogate him, for men in business suits to explain the situation to her mother while he watches the look of horror draw on her face. He knows he doesn’t have the same relationship any of his friends have with their mothers, and he wishes that he did. To tell her that he has a power similar to her, but instead of having the growth of plants visibly speed up, he can quite literally create life out of nothing. That he isn’t quirkless or powerless, that there is something besides the shape of their eyes and the thinness of their noses that relate them as mother and son. 

None of that happens. 

He knows for sure that Satori and the others told his team something. He hasn’t gotten any texts from even Goshiki, the last text from the boy being a link to an online website selling exercise bands and asking if he should buy them. More than once his finger has grazed over his team’s group chat, to try and heal the loneliness he suddenly feels regardless of the fact that Kuroo visits every night. 

It’s difficult for him to determine what’s the worse part about all of this. For the first time since the start of his career as Kodama, he feels something akin to  _ fear _ . The good thing about taking all of these days off is that it gives him a lot of time to just  _ think _ . To imagine what he’s going to do, how to react to different reactions. Sometimes, he manages to find the thread in his mind that leads back to Daichi, so he also pulls the other boy into his decision-making. 

At the end of the week, on Monday, Ushijima goes to school early already dressed in his practice clothes. He guesses Reon had been the one to come early and unlock the gym doors for the team. Fishing his key out, he pushes the small metal thing which causes his heart to thump even faster into the keyhole, hearing the sharp  _ click  _ of the lock sliding out of place. 

“Wakatoshi-kun.”

Ushijima doesn’t look up. He doesn’t want to face Satori yet, no. He pushes the doors open and steps onto the laminated wood, grip tightening on his bag. Behind him, after a second, he hears Satori drop down from where he’d probably been lying down on the overhang like so many times before. He starts kicking off his shoes, needing to exchange his shoes for his volleyball shoes. Setting his bag on the ground, he’s kept from following en suite to put on his shoes by a firm hand on his shoulder. 

“Won’t you look at me?” Satori says. Ushijima tenses but he turns, meeting Satori’s gaze. He’s sure the other didn’t expect him to be so direct by the slight widening of his eyes. The middle blocker’s hand drops from his shoulder, arms crossing over his chest. Ushijima continues to stare. 

“The others know,” Ushijima states. Satori nods. “Then why am I not under arrest yet?” 

“Waka-” Satori starts. “We...Don’t get me wrong, I am so  _ angry  _ that you never told me! And I’m confused as hell about you being a villain. I mean...when did you even start?”

_ I have nothing left to lose  _ Ushijima ruefully thinks. 

“Third year of middle school, although I was a less active member in the beginning due to the national team. You...are not scared?”

Satori lets out a rough cackle, grin turning sharp. “Don’t get me wrong Toshi, I’m  _ frightened _ . I’m trying to think about what other things you could have been lying about all along, which signs I missed, which actions or whatever I chose to ignore to keep up that pretty little picture you had set up before it was torn apart by someone who has teleportation powers which work a bit  _ too  _ well.” Then his grin falters, gaze flitting to somewhere to Ushijima’s right. “But...you’re my best friend, Toshi, and I can’t ignore the years we’ve spent together, regardless of the lie I’ve been partially living in. I’m...I want to keep my hero and personal life separate, so that is that!” He declares. “So don’t you dare….don’t you dare get caught.” Satori’s voice weakens. Ushijima, ever so quickly and painfully, feels his heart break at the sight of his best friend becoming so vulnerable. 

“You’re...helping me?” 

Satori closes his eyes. “What you do...you’re a villain. By all means, I should be hating you right now, have some sort of manga friends to rivals and enemies thing going on. But I’m selfish. All of us are. You shoulda seen how split Goshiki was with calling you or not. We had to convince him to give you some time to yourself.” Ushijima side-steps Satori, sitting so that he can start putting his shoes on. 

“Thank you, Sa-”

“But if you do anything suspicious, and if I meet out on the field again, don’t think I’m going to hold back. The same goes for everyone else.” Ushijima ignores how Satori’s voice breaks at the last sentence. “You are- you  _ were _ my friend, Ushijima.” He barely manages to hold back the flinch. “And for some reason, just that means so much.”

* * *

“You knew.” 

“About what?”

“Daichi...you know what I’m talking about. Ushijima.”

Daichi lowers his water bottle, shifting how his hand rests on his knee where he sits on the steps to the gym next to his best friend. 

“I’ve given you a whole  _ week  _ to come out to me!” Suga grumbles. “You must have gotten the news from, like, Erebus or someone since he seems so protective of you. I know you don’t want to admit it, but-”

“But what?” Daichi deadpans. Ever since Ushijima’s reveal, his mental walls have become weaker and weaker. Maybe it’s a side effect from helping Sakusa or he’s just cracking from all the emotional pressure the past few years have put on him, the fear always hidden in the back of his mind now come to life with a roaring passion. He can’t stop the whispers of thoughts from entering his mind and it’s all he can do to differentiate what’s spoken out loud from what isn’t. His mind is wavering and he knows that he has to take it easy so that his natural defenses can build themselves up again. 

So he doesn’t need to hear what else Suga has to say: it will either be lies or truths. Thoughts, on the other hand, explain and tell him more than his friend can at the moment. Images and words and sensations flashing by, painting a picture in his own mind like an artist painting a portrait, layer after layer combining together to make something that becomes more clear as each coat dries. 

“Ushijima is one of the Horsemen. Even if I didn’t know that already, nothing would change.” Something in Suga shifts, thoughts growing louder and pulsating with questions the hero still hasn’t fully formed yet in his mind. Then it drops, the curiosity replaced with annoyance. 

“Why won’t you tell us?” Suga frowns. “Who are the other Horsemen? We agreed not to tell the Association so-”

“There’s no guarantee that one of you might slip up. Or maybe they have telepaths or truth-tellers who will draw the names out of you. I’m sorry, Suga. It’s better if you don’t know. It’s,” he hesitates. “I trust you.” It breaks his heart when almost immediately, Suga’s mind screams  _ LIES  _ at him. He looks at the ground. “And, I’m not lying,” he lies to himself, swallowing the lump in his throat while curling his hands into fists. “I just... there are more players than just us, Suga. I can’t risk having them captured-”

Abruptly, Suga gets up and closes the gym doors, shutting out the sounds of shoes squeaking and balls bouncing. Daichi looks over his shoulder, frowning. What is he doing?

“I will repeat what I said before,” Suga shakily says. “I’ve given you a whole week to come out to me. I talked to Erebus while you were injured. Ronin is too new. Arashi has larger hands. Loki is too tall.” His whole body starts to freeze, his mind suddenly frosting over before exploding into  _ fear _ . “There’s a reason I let Tendou be selfish,” Suga continues,” a reason I let Ushijima go. Everyone thinks Iwaizumi runs the show, that he’s the only one doing the research. That he’s the only one with the real drive to discover what the hell is actually going on.

“I don’t want you lying to me anymore, Daichi. I know you’re a good man. I know that whatever you’re doing, it’s for the truth. For justice. To do something  _ good _ . So why,” Suga’s voice breaks. “Why did you turn out to be  _ evil _ ?”

“...what?” He just manages to croak. 

“Suga-”

“No,  _ Rouge _ ,” Suga demands. “Right now, I don’t want to talk to Sawamura Daichi, goddamit.” There are tears in his friend’s eyes. “I want to talk to  _ Azrael. _ ”

His heart  _ breaks _ . 

“Su-”

_ NOW!  _ His mind screams with fury and it suddenly hurts, it hurts so  _ much.  _ Daichi squeezes his eyes shut and looks away from his friend, not strong enough, not brave enough, not  _ good  _ enough to look at what he does. His consciousness snaps into Suga’s, and there he is, a cavern that is silvery and beautiful and glimmering with little amethysts. Except it’s not Suga standing there- he has defenses. Weak defenses, ones that won’t help at all against a telepath as powerful as Daichi, but defenses none-the-less. 

“So this is how Tendou felt.” Suga croaks. Daichi doesn’t need to look down to know how he looks. He can’t feel the mask on his face, the hood on his head, but there are gloves on his arms and the weight of a cloak draped across his shoulders. 

“So this is how Wakatoshi felt” Daichi echoes, taking a step forward, step echoing. Memories and thoughts flit around him but he allows them to slide off of him. He doesn’t want to invade his friend’s privacy even more than he already has, even more than he  _ will _ . He already feels disgusted, that’s he’s doing this. That he’s…

He swore never to do this. He swore on the gods, on himself, on his dead father. 

“I still can’t believe it!” Suga laughs. “Actually, I can. I  _ definitely can _ . You know when I suspected all of this?” Daichi doesn’t reply, feeling the build-up of power in his mind as he gets ready for what he’s about to do. “Shiratorizawa. When you went to goddamn Shiratorizawa. You- for being a telepath, your memories aren’t that strong. Your mom has shown me your photo albums tons of times, Daichi. Sakusa Kiyoomi? No pictures. A cousin like him? A lie, I think. Was that a lie?”

“....yes.”

“Okay, so he’s Ronin,” Suga casually says as if it was a common thing to match secret-identities to Villains, to make these connections and tell them as if he were listing what class a student can be found in. “That makes Oikawa Loki- that fits pretty well, actually. Who else was there? Akaashi, yes. Arashi- he does match the description from that article Seijoh found. And then Erebus...of course he’s that gangly cat.” The ground under them shudders as it intakes the unsteadiness Suga is feeling. 

“So tell me, Dai-”

“Stop talking. Don’t walk.” 

As soon as the words leave his mouth along with a small portion of his built-up power, Suga’s jaw snaps shut. The setter’s eyes widen, hands shooting up to feel his mouth. Daichi shudders, the clothing his mental projection wears changing into his volleyball uniform, the feel of the dark jersey with the number one printed so cleanly on the front and back giving him confidence and guilt of equal proportions. 

“When you’re powerful enough that even your own parents are afraid of what you can do, it’s hard to admit to himself how laughably pathetic it is that you’re the one who got it,” Daichi says, allowing his own thoughts and feelings to intermingle with Suga’s so that he can truly  _ believe  _ what Daichi’s saying. His side warps, turning into a cold steel chamber that contrasts with the beauty of Suga’s mind. “I was never able to really figure out what I could do as a telepath until I met...well...them.” Unbidden, between them, a projection of a young Daichi sitting in front of a young Kuroo, both of them looking nervous as they sit with their legs crossed before the memory flickers out again. 

“I almost hurt him, then,” Daichi’s voice crack. “There’s a reason that my mind is-is, well.” He waves his hands, motioning at Suga’s side before pathetically motioning to his side. Suga’s gaze follows the motion. “ _ This _ . It was only telekinesis at first. And when I thought that got too powerful, when I could just  _ barely  _ confused it...my mom had to tie my arms together and bind my hands because I was tearing my own hair out, unable to handle all the voices which suddenly attacked me.” He crosses his arms, self-consciously looking down. He can still feel the fear. There are days, like today, where his defenses falter. Today isn’t a bad day, though. He remembers his first loss at prefectural in his first year, how when the final whistle blew he suddenly felt the suffocating  _ pain- _

“I’ll talk about the important stuff now,” Daichi mutters, the puddle of blood that appeared on the ground more on his side with a small, dark, trembling shadow of something distinctly human clawing at itself disappearing like the silhouette of a nightmare. “I’m going to get straight to the point. You might argue otherwise, but...this is almost four years of research. This is me, going into the minds of most of them, getting the  _ truth  _ without them knowing.”

It takes too long and too little at the same time. In the headspace of people,  _ he  _ controls time, he controls the flow of thoughts and how quickly things are being perceived. 

It feels like half an hour, at least, but it’s probably been only fifteen seconds in reality. 

He tells Suga. He tells him about the formation, of him going to sign up to become a hero, hoping to quickly rise through the ranks with his awesome power. Overhearing. Gathering the team. Gathering friends who joined him in the dangerous world of their own making, turning their backs on childhood innocence and joy and safety. About the close calls, the almost deaths they’ve had. Spires of ice, bloodied daggers, burning flames.

He tells them about the corruption. Of the lab which turned one of them into something more dangerous. Of the murders, the money, the burials. Of pain and secrets and things that even adults wouldn’t want to even think about. 

The list of names, hero names, and real names alike. Orders not to hurt, not to harm, not to draw blood or break bones. One-sided betrayals and fear of the  _ pain  _ that would come if they were to experience a moment like what Daichi is having right now, like what Ushijima had experienced. That all along this was for  _ them _ . Because this world needs heroes, they need people like Suga, Iwaizumi, and Bokuto. They need people who lookout for the little guys and not up for money and power and blood. Because if the heroes are actually villains and the villains are heroes, then what is going to happen to this world?

“Do you believe me?” Daichi asks, voice hushed but he knows Suga can hear him. 

“I-” Suga starts a bit too loudly, probably surprised at being able to speak again. “I believe you, Daichi.” To his shock, Suga sounds...he sounds like he’s going to cry. Daichi looks up and suddenly his friend is in front of him, hugging him. “I’m so sorry that all of that had to happen, I’m so sorry.”

“I’m even sorrier,” Daichi mourns. “Suga...I need you to keep this a secret.”

“I can do that-”

“ _ No _ , you don’t understand.” Daichi closes his eyes. “I have to do the same thing I did just then. I have to make sure you can’t speak it, can’t write it, not until all of this is over. Do you understand? I can’t have you doing anything suspicious, I can’t have you let it slip o-or having another telepath or something reading your mind-”

“But you can do something for that, can’t you? I’m so  _ angry  _ at you but I trust you.”

“...I can set up mental defenses that can protect against mind-reading, but if they make you talk...I’m sorry, Suga, but I can’t let what happened right now and with Ushijima happen again.” He breaks out of his friend’s hold, hanging his head. 

“So what are you going to do?” Suga asks, putting a hand on Daichi’s shoulder. He lets out a hoarse laugh. 

“You’re always so positive. You’re a good friend, Suga. But, basically, a gag order. You...I’m going to break a promise I made to myself.”

“Hmm” Suga lets out an interested hum. “Mind control, then? You don’t know how fun I’m going to think of this. I’m trying to imagine the look on Iwaizumi’s face when I pull out of the investigation or become more useless while knowing what’s happening without being able to say anything.” Daichi feels a tear slip down his cheek. 

“I’m sorry-”

“Don’t be. As I said- this is going to be cool.  _ Now do it _ .”

  
  


When they open their eyes again, Daichi immediately looks at Suga. The boy has a look of awe and shock on his face. “I think we should head back inside-” he cuts himself off. Because at the same time, the thoughts in his head, what he  _ wanted to say _ , was, “So I can’t talk about Kuroo and Erebus and-”. 

_ That means it worked  _ he gently sends the thought into Suga’s head. He feels the fear, he feels the surprise and what he can only describe as  _ gwah _ . 

“Sure- let’s go inside.”

They go into the gym inside and that’s when Daichi really addresses the broken section of his mind, what he did to himself. And he smiles at his team even when their thoughts and emotions start to attack him. 

“SPLIT INTO TEAMS! LET’S GO LET’S GO!”

His own smile has never felt so  _ fake _ . 

* * *

_ Tetsurou… _

_ Daichi!? What’s wrong? Do I need to come over- _

_ No no, it’s fine. I….Suga found out _

_ Oh gods, shit, well then. What happened after? _

_ I told him everything. He understands. And he approved of me placing a control in his head so that he doesn’t let it slip.  _

_ ….once again, oh my gods, Daichi are you okay? Like, I  _ know  _ what anything like that does to you- _

_ We’ll have to speed up our plans. We can’t do it after Nationals- we have to get it done before now.  _

_ That’s good, we can do it. Short notice and we’ll have to throw away tact, but okay. I understand. I just...your walls are good for now? The thoughts aren’t becoming too invasive and stuff? _

_ All of them are kind of muffled. As long as I only focus on one thing, it’s not going to affect me for now. We have less than three months and...there’s so much to do.  _

_ Daichi, remember, no tact. Don’t stress about it. We have Kiyoomi and his cousin now so you can take some weight off of your shoulders. Are you absolutely  _ sure  _ you’ll last? I don’t want you to suddenly break, especially with the Association probably on the verge of seriously cracking down on us. And Suga, right? He seems to be pretty trustworthy now. Give yourself a break every now-and-then and lift it when it’s just the two of you. _

_ Thank you, Tetsurou. Those were actually some good recommendations.  _

_ Aren’t they always? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm speeding things up! We're definitely past half-way at this point. I will try to get more fluff and POVs of other heroes like Bokuto, but...well.....we'll see I guess. 
> 
> Also, PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS OGISNROHINOIHNDOH COMMENTS KEEP ME HYDRATED  
> *also please join my discord *: [Nifty server you should join](https://discord.gg/ySvGkthhn6)
> 
> \------  
>  Horsemen/"Villains":  
> Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
> Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
> Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
> Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
> Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation  
> Sakusa/ Ronin - can see and is aware of the smallest details; telumkinesis (creation and manipulation of weaponry, great fighting skill), limited cryokinesis  
>  Behind-the-scene-Horsemen:  
> Komori - superspeed; former hero but now works as the Horsemen’s “computer-comms guy” after Sakusa had his power evolution
> 
> Heroes:  
> Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
> Iwaizumi / Moteo - teleportation with and without touch  
> Kenma / Slink - invisibility  
> Lev / Geroy(герой) - elastic limbs  
> Hanakami / Don - ferrokinesis (metal manipulation)  
> Matsukawa / Kabe - skin to metal  
> Nishinoya / Thunder - superspeed w/ complimentary accelerated healing  
> Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers  
> Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
> Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
> Yaku / Healer - can heal someone and feel their emotions, mood, power when healing  
> Tendou / Creeper - can climb walls, super flexible, strong but very light bones  
> Semi / Psi - object phasing  
> Goshiki - invulnerability
> 
> Others:  
> Asahi - (P) hero ally; retractable forearm length metal claws, enhanced hearing+smell, superfast healing factor (wolverine basically)  
> Kiyoko - (P) hero ally; hydrokinesis  
> Atsumu - (P) hero ally; persuasion/manipulation (limited mind control), surface feelings empath, enhanced stealth  
> Osamu - (P) hero ally; Teleportation (less powerful than Iwa):  
> Ennoshita - (P) hero ally; empath and lie/truth detection  
> Akiteru - (P) hero ally; temporary power absorption (rogue, basically, except better)  
> Motoya - (P) superspeed


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of the end of what is considered familiar and normal for the Horsemen and those who know them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me 3 hours over the spread of 2 weeks to write, thus helping me conquer my writer's block. Also, you know how I use quirks to describe weaker powers? I started Boku no Hero Academia two weeks ago and lemme tell you I so wanna start a piece for that after I've finished this one.

The practice matches came and went, Nationals came closer and closer, arrived, became the present. And as teams got knocked out, as teams cried and cheered, as five individuals led their teams to victory as two others watched from the stands, silent and hidden but smiling…

Their smiles were fake. After years of acting, of hiding, it came to them easily. Even when they won their matches, when they had to face each other, even when one had to lose to the other like all things in life are, a competition...it was the guilt. It was the goddamn boiling guilt that is what’s making their plans change, which started their slow, inevitable downfall. Because all of them knew the truth. Vigilantism is illegal. A hero without a license. Heroes called villains without a license. Even when they reveal what is churning among a group of the most important chairmen in the Hero Association, even when the newspapers and television stations churn out story upon story detailing the shock and betrayal other Association leaders felt, the people felt, analyses of every little action of the people who brought those wolves in sheep clothing down…

Selfishness is a fickle thing. If only, if only they didn’t  _ care _ . If only only only-

_ If only they never knew  _ is each of their deepest wants. 

Wakatoshi can barely stand being around his team now, no matter how much he wants to hug and talk to them (regardless of how little he did that before). He wishes that Goshiki doesn’t flinch back and cut himself off when he finds himself calling out to Ushijima. He couldn’t find it in himself to look at anyone when long after their loss to Karasuno but well before Nationals, he went to his coach and told him that he would now be resigning from the team and handing over his captaincy so that he could focus on the final practices of his final season on the National 18U team (he already turned in his resignation for that too). 

Daichi has some comfort. If Suga, surprisingly the most rule-following hero at Karasuno, believes in him even before he had given him his reasoning, then he knows that most of the team will follow. But there’s always doubt. In science and math, they were always taught that the probability of anything happening can theoretically never be zero or a hundred. And he knows that even if they come to accept him, it’s definitely going to take time, that there are going to be hours, days, months (or forever) of them looking at him without any trust, keeping their distance, treating him like the stranger he’s always been all along. 

Keiji’s mind chants Koutarou at him, the phantom pain of bones breaking in his arm emerging as he leans his head momentarily against his best friend’s shoulder before letting him jump out the window, beautiful wings snapping open as he glides up and up into the embrace of the night.    
  
Tooru wants to be able to joke around with Makki, Mattsun, and Iwa even longer. He wants to see his team, he wants to go for that ramen outing they swore they’d all go on after Nationals to celebrate the year of well-earned victories and defeats their kouhai will learn from. He knows Iwa is within a few kilometers from him, unknowing that Tooru is here. That Tooru is part of the people Iwa will be fighting until bloody because everyone’s hairs are on end since there are so many child soldiers here, playing volleyball and being kids for once, that  _ something  _ bound to happen. And Tooru will help lead that something, will make the world acknowledge their actual presence once and for all, probably while being broadcast across all of Japan for his family and friends to watch with shock-stilled faces. 

Kiyoomi and Motoya have each other at least: they know they’re lucky like that. Even though Kiyoomi’s parents will most definitely be beyond disappointed in him, that they’ll probably disown him even with the knowledge that what he did probably saved them from blackmail and threats, his ending is going to be anything other than happy. He regrets dragging Motoya into this much, for forcing his cousin to take a step into the shadows and away from the light he should be basking in. But even he knows that Motoya will never have it any other way, that they’re more brothers than cousins. That even though Motoya’s had to drag Kiyoomi’s ass away from the heroes he used to joke and team-up with, the speedster wouldn’t throw anything they’ve gained away if it meant putting any of their small family-like team in danger. 

Tetsurou knows that Kenma suspects something, knows that Kenma has followed him while invisible an innumerable amount of time only to find the corner Kuroo had turned around empty. He knows that Kenma will be the one who will be both the most and the least disappointed. Hell, he wouldn’t put it past him to already know. But if he knew, even with the trust, he would have told someone on the team. But no. And Tetsurou can’t help but wish that it had been him, not Wakatoshi, who had been unmasked first. That he could be saved all this  _ drama  _ from the people he cares for. As the American superstition goes, black cats bring bad luck. That can’t be more true than it is now. 

Any chance of normalcy, at a regular life, ends. Today. While their teams are getting packed to take the buses back to their homes, when those who made it this far in the season are saying their goodbyes to the national court, Tetsurou will be transporting them one by one to the meet-up spot. 

It’s frightening, to be honest. Because they know that whether they succeed or fail, they’ll be sending their country into chaos. Against the popular belief of the heroes who don’t know them, the seven of them aren’t violent, they never were. They’re just _ kids  _ for the gods’ sakes! Daichi knows that at least his mom knows why he won’t be coming home that night, but the same can’t be said for everyone else. It’s funny- at the beginning of all of this, three years ago, what helped push himself, Tooru, and Tetsurou was that they felt like they were heroes or vigilantes in their rag-tag costumes and colored yarn bracelets. Protagonists straight from comic books, fighting for what is actually right. What they always forget to put in the comics and movies and books, though, is that there are more people than just those who are named. There are brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers who are thinking, wondering, behind the scenes. There are suspicions from others that are never written. There are emotions and feelings and too many  _ what-ifs  _ to even fit in its own volume. 

“All right!” Daichi claps his hands together for the last time before his team, the sadness he feels masked by the bright look he barely has to force on his face. He loves his team, he does. And just like Keiji, knowing that after this none of them who are heroes will have to worry about blackmail or being led into the dark, that’s a relief.  _ Suga  _ he calls with his mind as the rest of the team quickly looks at him. “Make sure that you’re wearing a fresh set of clothes and have at least wiped yourself down before getting on the bus! I think I speak for all of us when I say that I don’t want to be smelling sweat for the next few hours.” There’s a chorus of laughs and even Kageyama grins, ducking his head down to nudge Hinata and say something to him. A warm feeling flows through him when he realizes that whatever Kageyama must have said wasn’t provocative, as Hinata simply nudged the setter back, leaning slightly into his space and saying something to him. They’ve grown so much…

“Aye aye, Daichi-san!” Both Nishinoya and Tanaka salute. “Anything for Kiyoko-san!” They exclaim before scampering to probably douse themselves in body wash and cologne.  _ Daichi _ ? Suga’s voice comes in his head. 

_ I have to leave _

They’re going to go into the Hero Association’s headquarters. Even though they have better versions of the popular anti-power/quirk field emitters, it should barely dent any of their powers. Selfishly, the HQ has some of the most powerful heroes guarding the place around the clocks, and from their research, they’re able to use their powers without any bother from the emitters. Considering that the Horsemen are about as powerful as those heroes, they should also be able to use their powers. 

It’s going to risky. Once the alert goes off, the buses will probably be stopped and a literal hoard of heroes is going to hunt them down. As long as one of them gets the necessary evidence and are able to leave, to keep it safe long enough to make the poison in the system visible to all...it’ll be worth the life-sentence they’ll probably get. They’re going to try to make sure it’s either Motoya or Keiji who gets the evidence since they can more easily escape with superspeed or slight. 

_ It’s today!? _ He sees Suga’s eyes widen.  _ But- _

_ At least I left you with some good advice _

_ Not being sweaty on a crowded bus is common sense, not good advice! _

Daichi picks his bag up from the ground, heavier than usual with not just his volleyball equipment but also a durable uniform which nobody would probably believe is his. He turns and walks to where Ukai is watching over them, visibly amused even after he notices his team’s captain walking his way. “Coach,” Daichi greets with a slight bow of his head. “Can I step out for a bit?” Ukai raises an eyebrow, permanently shining eyes reminding anyone about the man’s quirk of being able to see in the dark. The man tilts his head a bit, a slight smile turning into a smirk as he raises a hand and ruffles Daichi’s hair. 

“There’s was no need to ask me, kid. You’re the least problematic of all of them. Go on. Make sure you’re back within half an hour.” If only he knew that in less than half an hour, about half of his kids will get alerts from their phones summoning them to defend the National Heroes Association’s central building. 

“Thank you,” he bows. He can feel Suga’s eyes on him, he can feel his sadness and subconscious pleading through the mist of joy, content, and exhaustion. Then he turns, tightens his grip on the bag strap, and exits the room, sliding the door shut behind him. He can hear the rowdy bunch through the walls and he vaguely wonders who has been their neighbors at this place and how annoyed they’ve probably felt each night. Barely turning around the next corner, a voice calls out to him. 

“Wrong way, captain.”

“I knew that,” Daichi quips, turning one-eighty to go down the opposite hallway instead. That would have delayed him a minute, he thinks. Kiyoomi lets out a  _ tch _ . He’s already dressed up, which should cause some concern but without the mask and hood on, in addition to the jacket being zipped up, he just looks like a regularly too-tall teenager. 

“You’re nervous.” Kiyoomi tilts his head up and his lips twitch. Daichi is surprised he doesn’t have any sort of mask on. Does he trust the cleanliness of this place or does he just not want to bother with it for once? “Remember what I said that one time? Who we are? We aren’t going to be standing down anytime soon. They can send as many heroes as they want, and we’ll take all of them down. We won’t hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve to be hurt- civilians, heroes, superheroes- but if they deserve it, then nothing can help them.”

Daichi huffs. “This is why people think we’re villains-”

“No, it’s because of your choice in the team’s apparel theme” Kiyoomi cuts him off, opening the door to the stairwell after they pass the elevator. The ace keeps a gloved hand on the doorknob, making sure that no one can open it from the other side as Daichi leans down and opens the duffel bag. Quickly stripping himself of everything except for his socks and underwear, he quickly puts on the fitted shirt, no longer feeling embarrassed about the way it clings to his skin, and exposes his arms and shoulders. Then he pulls the pants on, knees slightly lighter than the rest of the cloth from time, and secures the belt after making sure the shirt’s tucked in. Then comes the boots and gloves, and last but not least, the cloak. The only reason he’s wearing it this time is for an extra layer of protection in case there are fire wielders or anything in the beginning. He’ll have the mask on for his identity, although it won’t help if he comes face to face with anyone who knows him. Just like Kiyoomi’s jacket and everyone else's, his cloak has been modified so that if it’s pulled past a certain amount of force, it’ll come right off and allow him to escape capture. It still feels like it’s trying to choke him after he secures the clasp right below his collarbone. He leaves the open duffel with his shoes and clothes by the door. 

Tetsurou is standing in the shadows by the foot of the building, amber eyes glowing from the darkness. He whistles, low and long. 

“Look at you two- are you missing an electron because I’m feeling an attraction?”

“Stop it” Kiyoomi deadpans but Daichi was able to see his smile before he pulled his mask out of his pocket and pulled it down over his head until it covers his mouth, tightening the strap behind his head and flicking the hood up. 

“I think you might have a few too many,” Daichi chooses to reply, rubbing the area under his eyes and stifling a yawn. That makes him feel guilty. This situation is not appropriate for a yawn. And of course, Tetsurou would pick him about it. 

The teen smoothly steps out of the shadows, the red that crosses over his body giving him a darker look than the dark orange and eerie blue of Daichi’s and Kiyoomi’s outfits. His mask is on already, hood forgoed but hair somehow combed out of its signature position to all fall over his face. He throws his arms around Daichi’s shoulders and rests his chin on his head. A feeling of safety and reassurance runs through Daichi, allowing him to relax. He hadn’t realized that he had tensed up sometime during the walk down. 

“I’ve got everyone else already in an alley between here and there,” he says. “You gotta be faster, Sawamura~. Anyway, our plan will probably be starting in less than a minute. Top of the building, right?”

“Yeah,” Daichi nods. A breeze blows and makes him shudder, goosebumps rising along his exposed arms. Tetsurou separates from him and grabs his hand, reaching out to Kiyoomi. The younger teen doesn’t hesitate to take it and then the two of them are dragged into the shadows. It only takes a few seconds but before they know it, they’re stepping out into somewhere else, into an alley where Motoya is crouched on the ground in a duplicate of Kiyoomi’s outfit except with green rather than blue, Keiji isn’t wearing a jacket so he only has his mask on his face. Tooru brightens when he sees the three, the turquoise scales on his arm turning back into normal skin. Wakatoshi uncrosses his arms. The poor guy looks like he hasn’t slept a full night all week. 

_ You alright _ ? Daichi asks. The corners of Wakatoshi’s eyes visibly crinkle without the shadow of a hood- he’s smiling. 

_ Yes _

Daichi opens the mind link up to everyone else, quickly feeling their presence in his head, comforting and invigorating as they buzz with a need to get this over with. Whatever future they lead themselves into, it will soon be the past. 

“Let’s do this,” Tetsurou puts a foot out. Soon, all of them have a small stack of identically clothed feet, reminiscent of playing footsie under the table in grade school and trying to see whose foot can come on top. The cool feeling envelops them once again and before they know it, the seven are in front of the grand, too-tall Heroes Association building. 

“Heehee~” Tooru laughs, pulling his foot off the top of the pile. “I won!” He’s quick to start a run towards the building and Daichi watches, feeling a bit surreal, as Tooru morphs into a dragon, flies up to the roof of the building-

And then rips a large chunk out of it, immediately setting wailing alarms off. 

“LET’S CAUSE SHIT TO HAPPEN!” Motoya cackles, immediately causing all of them to look at him. “What? I-I’m just, ugh,”

“That’s the spirit!” Tetsurou cackles. And then they’re on the roof, quickly running out from where he sent them under Tooru’s stomach.

“Three flight-based heroes, coming from the north and west!” Daichi calls out loud.  _ Got it  _ Tooru’s voice comes in his head and the illusions of large chunks of concrete manifest, flying towards the specks of the three heroes, causing them to slow to dodge the fake debris.  _ Remember not to pair up _ he calls to the rest of them. A gust of wind from Keiji and the rest of them are in the partially destroyed top floor of the association building, which is simply a storage room of sorts. Must be a pain to get stuff from so high up. They find the door quick enough and there are already sounds of people running from further down the dark, spiraling, unnecessarily lavish staircase. 

The most important event in all of their lives has begun. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOOOO SO CLOSE TO THE END OF THIS FIC!....or are we   
> Also, PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS OGISNROHINOIHNDOH COMMENTS KEEP ME HYDRATED  
> *also please join my discord *: [Nifty server you should join](https://discord.gg/ySvGkthhn6)  
> \------------   
>  Horsemen/"Villains":  
> Daichi / Azrael- telekinesis and telepathy  
> Oikawa / Loki - "magic", illusions, shape-shifting  
> Kuroo / Erebus - umbrakinesis (dark energy control), shadow travel, night vision  
> Ushijima / Kodama - plant creation and manipulation  
> Akaashi / Arashi - weather element manipulation  
> Sakusa/ Ronin - can see and is aware of the smallest details; telumkinesis (creation and manipulation of weaponry, great fighting skill), limited cryokinesis  
>  Behind-the-scene-Horsemen:  
> Komori - superspeed; former hero but now works as the Horsemen’s “computer-comms guy” after Sakusa had his power evolution
> 
> Heroes:  
> Bokuto / Owlman - Wings, can form talons, night vision  
> Iwaizumi / Moteo - teleportation with and without touch  
> Kenma / Slink - invisibility  
> Lev / Geroy(герой) - elastic limbs  
> Hanakami / Don - ferrokinesis (metal manipulation)  
> Matsukawa / Kabe - skin to metal  
> Nishinoya / Thunder - superspeed w/ complimentary accelerated healing  
> Suga / Rouge - "magic", capable of creating barriers unaffected by powers  
> Tsukishima/ Kesu - temporary power nullification via touch  
> Taketora / Firehead - Pyrokinesis  
> Yaku / Healer - can heal someone and feel their emotions, mood, power when healing  
> Tendou / Creeper - can climb walls, super flexible, strong but very light bones  
> Semi / Psi - object phasing  
> Goshiki - invulnerability
> 
> Others:  
> Asahi - (P) hero ally; retractable forearm length metal claws, enhanced hearing+smell, superfast healing factor (wolverine basically)  
> Kiyoko - (P) hero ally; hydrokinesis  
> Atsumu - (P) hero ally; persuasion/manipulation (limited mind control), surface feelings empath, enhanced stealth  
> Osamu - (P) hero ally; Teleportation (less powerful than Iwa):  
> Ennoshita - (P) hero ally; empath and lie/truth detection  
> Akiteru - (P) hero ally; temporary power absorption (rogue, basically, except better)  
> Motoya - (P) superspeed  
> Ukai - (Q) see in the dark


End file.
